God's message to us in Genesis chapters one through eleven.
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.
Deuteronomy 30:10 The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.
It is difficult for a lot of people to understand the importance of the Bible to those that love it and obey it's teachings. This book receives a broad range of reactions, to some people it is totally irrelevant to our world today, to others the Bible is one of God's greatest gifts to man, and to others it is somewhere in between.
It is important for us to understand the amount of respect that Israel had for the contents of our Bible. They didn't always obey it but they were so sure that the Bible is God's word that they went to great lengths to preserve it so that we would have accurate information about God and how to please him.
It is amazing how much God reveals in the first eleven chapters of Genesis about our origin, meaning, morality and destiny. If we only had these first twelve chapters of the Bible we would have enough information about God, our world and ourselves to make life worthwhile.
| Important Lessons In Genesis: |
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God is real and we can trust himGod is eternal, he is powerful and holy and his children can trust him to treat us excessively better than we deserve. God can force things to happen but he chooses to be worshiped by people that have a free will to choose to love him on their own. We live in God's creationGod is the only un-created being in the universe, everything else was made and is being sustained by him, that's all that we need to know about how the universe began. The beauty of the universe is a picture of his glory and it's complexity reveals his power and wisdom. We are made in God's imageThe greatest thing about all of us and our most tremendous privilege is that we have been created in God's image. Mankind is the hands on part of God's creation, but that wasn't good enough, God breathed life into us and gave us a spiritual inner being with the ability to think his thoughts and chose to work out his purpose. Sin is our number one problemEvery breakdown in our world is the result of sin, from our broken bodies to the difficulty in relationships, to the catastrophic weather events all around us. It is easy to look horizontal at what is wrong in this world but the root cause of our problem is the fact that our vertical relationship with God is broken. Satan is real and he tempts us to sin but he is a defeated enemySatan has a special degree of hatred for us, every single one of us forces him to see the image of God, he is forced to constantly be with someone that he hates. His hatred motivates him to deceive you into believing that he is as powerful as God. Obedience is the key to usefulness, joy and blessingOur imperfect journey of faith and obedience will bring us to the place where we are useful to God and a joy and a blessing to him and to the world around us. When we align our desires with God's we will find our greatest joy in this life. We need a Redeemer so that we don't fear deathGod's response to man's sin reveals more of God's character and his love for the human race. God shows us our need for forgiveness and then he provides the way to be forgiven so that we can be accepted into his presence for eternity. We can be blinded by sinIncredible circumstances doesn't guarantee success in your relationship with God. Life in the garden wasn't good enough to keep sin away, having Adam and Eve for parents and hearing their warnings about sin wasn't enough for Cain, and even the children of the survivors of the flood went right back to sin. God created marriage to be one man and one womanGod loves relationships, he maintained a close relationship with the first humans and he created a higher level relationship between a husband and a wife. Throughout scripture marriage is a metaphor for the relationship of God with his chosen people and for Jesus relationship with the church. No one is superiorWe are created equal and we all need the same gospel to change everything in us. The gospel will make your pride disappear as you realize that you are so bad that Jesus had to die to reverse the effects of sin. But at the same time you don’t have to live in fear because God loves you so much that he was willing to come and die for you. We are made to worshipIf you don't worship God then you will find a replacement, even if you are unaware that you have made a choice, you will find something or somebody. When you replace God, who is eternal, with gods that can be taken away, your whole life will be turned upside down. We need a Sabbath restPhysical rest is good but soul rest is our greatest need, without a peaceful relationship with my creator I will never have rest for my soul, I will never feel like I am good enough or that I will be okay when this life is over. I celebrate the Lord's day because his work on the cross is the only way to enter into his rest. God has a chosen peopleMan is naturally drawn to sin, God needed a new people that would not be like everyone else, he needed a people that would show the rest of the world how to please God and bring him glory. The lineage of the promised messiah had to be protected by God in order for Jesus to be born and live until his purpose was fulfilled on the cross. The life of faithGod expects us to live on promises but we prefer explanations, our journey of faith and obedience doesn't have to be perfect, that's why God has given us plenty of examples of people that struggled to believe all of his promises all of the time. |
