GENESIS-LET THERE BE LIFE

Today is January 1, 2011!  What a year 2010 was.  So full of challenges and blessings, and burdens.  I'm sure that 2011 will hold the same.  This year as i read, I am focusing in on reading ten chapters a day.  That is half of my usual pattern for the last almost ten years or longer.  I want to do this to spend more time as I read and to write about some things I might not get to if I try to cover too much Scripture and write about some ideas, thoughts, insights, etc.  I hope you have a Happy New Year!  Here we go..... 1) START EVERYTHING WITH GOD- Gen. 1:1 says:  "In the beginning God..."  Now that should tell us something.  Since everything began with God... everything should begin with God!  Simple isn't it?  But here is how it works:  start every day with God; start every commute with God; start every class with God; start every meal with God; start every relationship with God; start every Church service with God; start every friendship with God; start raising our children with God; start living our lives with God; and on an on we could go.  The idea is to start everything.... in the beginning.... with GOD!  Let God be preeminent, take priority, be pronounced, be praised, be proclaimed, be passionately poised in our lives as the beginning of everything we do or that comes into our lives.  Start everything with God! 2) GOD IS INVOLVED- It is so striking to read Genesis chapter one and two and see all that God is doing.  To name a few:  God created, God said, God saw, God divided, God called, God made, God set, God blessed,  God ended, God formed, God planted, God took, God caused; and many of these would be repeated many times.  God did not start creation as passive.  For anyone who would believe in theistic evolution, the Bible says differently.  Theistic evolution would mean that God got it all going and then left it to whatever to turn out, but God was involved in everything, every step of the way!  In fact, in Gen. 2:5 it states:  "for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,"  This means that it did not rain because God did not CAUSE it to rain!  Without GOD causing things to happen... they did not happen!!  Wow!  What a God!  What a Book!  What a revelation to man!  What a Creator!  Wow!  Now, think about this dear friend.... God hasn't changed!  He is just as involved to day as He was back then.  Yes!  He is concerned about every minute detail of our lives and is actively working in us and the world to bring about His perfect plan for our lives and the ages.  He will do it!  He is actively involved!  Praise his Holy Name!! 3) RULE # 1- Gen. 2:16,17 "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."   For the first almost 2,000 years of life on earth.... this is the only rule given man, and it only applied to those in the garden (two at the time) and ceased to be meaningful once they were cast out of the garden.  You see it is not rules that make us sin.  God looked at mankind and knew that every imagination of their hearts were evil and because of that brought about the flood, but... He had only given them one verbal rule!  Now, the rest of the rules... he had to write on the tablets of their hearts... their conscience.  Now notice:  RULE # 2- Gen. 9:4- (2,000 years later) "But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."  and then: RULE # 3- Gen. 9:6 "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:  for in the image of God made he man."  (You could say Rule #2 is BLOOD... don't EAT it, don't SHED it! But I made it rule 2 and 3.)  You see, it would not be until  Moses.... a full 2,500 years into human history before we were given the 10 commandments written into stone.  So, we cannot blame God for man's disobedience because they have not heard the written rules.... they had them put into every man's heart since creation.  Wow! 4) WHOSE RIGHT?  We live in a day when the global warming crowd is saying we will do away with snow, winter, cool weather, etc.; but in Genesis 8:22, God says:  "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  So, whose right?  Are the prognosticators right, or is God right?  I know that God is right, and to say that this process is going to stop is a direct affront against God and against God's Word!  Notice this also:  Gen. 3:21 "And Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them."  Now is God right or PETA?  GOD is right!  You see friend, when you look carefully at God's Word, you see that modern movements are not attacking a way of life, but they are attacking the source of life.... GOD!  Dear friend, God is right and we can be confident of GOD and His Word! Well, I wrote more than I thought I would today, and still had to leave out some thoughts.  The Word is inexhaustible!  May your year be blessed, and everything begin with God in your life.  Blessings upon you my friend.  Join with me each day this year and we will journey through God's Word a few times and pick up a thought here and there.  Dr. Mike Mutchler- Pastor of Grand View Baptist Church, Beavercreek, Oregon