by
Keith Hunt
I belong to a religious Christian Book Club (as I write in
October 2008), and have for some time. Each month I receive their
new flyer or magazine, whatever you want to call it, on many
books I can buy. It is truly amazing how many books are written
with a Christian theme to them. You have many categories of
Christian books from fiction stories to technical this or that to
do with the Bible.
It would seem people continue to write on the same subject
over and over again, with their individual twist to it. There are
so many books out there on say the subject of "prayer" that if
you were to read them all, you would never have time to actually
pray.
Yet, despite all the "theological" books written on "God" I
still wonder how many out there in the world of Christian
religion REALLY KNOW the God of the Bible. It is sad for me to
say but I think it is quite possible so many Christians are
reading books about God, that they do not read the ONE BOOK that
tells us in depth, what God is like.
It is also sad for me to say that most who go under the
banner of "Christian," do not have that much interest in really
getting to know and understand the God they say they worship and
serve.
If YOU are one that wants to understand the God of the Bible
as He Himself reveals it in His Word, then this series of studies
was written just for you.
IN THE BEGINNING
The very first words of the Bible tell us that God created
the heavens and the earth. The Fenton translation says, "By
PERIODS God created the heavens and the earth."
Ah, it may not have all been in just ONE "big bag" as
science now supposes it occurred. Not all the universe as we are
seeing it today, may have been created all at the same time.
Exactly how it was all created to where it is today (and we are
still discovering more and more of the universe with each passing
day) is not that important to know. It is sufficient to know it
was God who created it, and somewhere within it all this, the
planet we know as "earth" was created.
We are told that the universe was created out of NOTHING!
That at sometime in the past eternity there was nothing but
nothing as far as the physical universe was concerned. It was out
of NOTHING that God created the physical. And He did it through
the person we know today as Jesus Christ. Part of the KNOWLEDGE
of God is to KNOW the one who actually did the creating. It is
all explained to us in Colossians 1:10-17.
The PERSON who said, "Let there be an earth" "let there be
light" "Let there be seas" "Let there be land animals" "Let there
be sea creatures" and all we read about in the first verses of
Genesis chapter one, was actually the BEING who eventually, in
the process of time, became the one we know today as Jesus
Christ.
I have given you on this Website, MANY studies from the word
of God on the subject of the GOD-HEAD. I have proved to you, that
the Godhead is today and was from past eternity, made up of TWO
PERSONAL BEINGS, BOTH known as "God" - BOTH Eternal - BOTH being
EQUAL in ALL THINGS except AUTHORITY! One of those personal
beings we today call God the Father, the other Jesus Christ, or
God the Son. By putting the first chapter of the Gospel of John
together with Philippians 2:1-11, we see the simple truth of the
position of these two persons in the ONE Godhead. Those two
sections of Scripture are easy to understand IF you just read
them and BELIEVE them! Why, they are so simple a CHILD can
understand them. But, many today do not want to have the mind of
a child when it comes to reading the Bible, they want
"scholastical scholarship" of the mind, and hence such an
attitude of mind can NEVER come to understand the Bible or the
Godhead of the Bible.
So for you to REALLY come to KNOW God you will need to
become a little child. This is so important a fact that Jesus
said, UNLESS you become as a child, you can not enter the Kingdom
of God.
So now you have the mind of a child let's begin our journey
through the Bible to find out what the Eternal God WANTS you to
KNOW about Himself.
In the beginning, back in eternity, there was a universe
that contained physical NOTHING. It was strictly the universe of
the eternal spirit world. There was the TWO BEINGS of the
Godhead, there was countless angels, living creatures of various
kinds, there was the Holy City Jerusalem above. All of this was
also brought into being at some point in the past ages of
eternity. Before all that we can only conclude there was the TWO
persons of the Godhead. For how long there was nothing else in
the universe we are not told.
The universe was NOT entirely BLACKNESS! No, not at all, for
the Godhead is LIGHT. There was therefore LIGHT SHINING IN
DARKNESS!
But out of that light there was to be MORE light! God did
not want to have just NOTHING but the Godhead shining in the
universe. He wanted OTHER beings and creatures to enjoy His light
and the vastness of the universe. So He created the angels, and
all the creatures of the spirit world we read about in the Bible.
WHEN and HOW LONG this was the universe WE ARE AGAIN NOT TOLD in
the Bible. All we are told is the FACT that it was how it was
BEFORE the physical universe was created.
We should see from this that God is not an exclusive person.
He is not a hermit type, who is happy to just live by Himself.
Just the opposite is true. God LOVES to SHARE things and loves to
CREATE beauty in all forms and shapes.
When you read about the spirit world in the pages of the
Bible, you should be struck with the astonishing truth that God
is NOT DRAB, He is not a God of black and white and grey. The
picture we get from the passages about the spirit world are
pictures of DAZZLING COLOR! Just read the last two chapters of
the book of Revelation and you should be convinced of the truth
that God is anything but color-blind! Where some get the idea
that to worship God you need to separate yourself from the world
and dress in drag colorless clothing, is NOT from the Bible, but
from the false ideas of false religions.
Now you would think that God has everything so far, a
universe now filled with angelic beings and creatures. But He did
not desire to stop there. He desired to do even more. So he
created a physical universe. To be sure He had a plan in mind for
this physical universe and especially for one particular planet.
We see from Genesis one that as God formed this planet,
bringing light to it, creating the land and seas, and the
creatures on the land, sea, and air, creating day and night, He
said, "It was GOOD!"
Now, we are given the physical earth and all upon it, as it
was in the beginning, and it was in the sight and mind of God,
GOOD!
There are many DVDs out there, such as the BBC "The Blue
Planet" and "Planet Earth" that just blows your mind, with the
spectacle of what the physical life on this planet Earth is all
about. The WONDERS of this physical planet is SPECTACULAR in
scope and breadth and width and depth.
Then, you can just walk out yourself into the nature near
you, and if you have eyes to see with, you can see the
astonishing miracles of physical life, from the smallest insect
to the towering mighty trees and mountains, to the vast oceans
and winding rivers and majestic waterfalls.
God is a person who LOVES DIFFERENCES and VARIOUS COLORS! He
is a master painter, designer, engineer, builder, architect,
sculptor. There is NOTHING DRAB about God! That is lesson number
one after learning that God loves to CREATE, that we should
immediately grasp from the creation around us on this earth and
also out into the ever stretching universe.
God is NOT a God of black and white and grey. He is NOT
DRAB! He has a part of His personality that is VIBRANT, DYNAMIC, LOUD,
FLASHY, FLAMBOYANT, GAUDY, BLAZING, GLEAMING and all the other
words that make up what you see on this earth and in the
universe.
And God said He saw that it was GOOD!!
We see from Genesis one that God only has to speak the word
and it is done. But we also see that in fashioning this earth He
is ORDERLY and ORGANIZED, that He often does things LOGICALLY,
and does not just do them all in one split second. He took SIX
DAYS to form this earth. Not everything has to be done in a few
minutes is the teaching He wants us to have from this. Then
although He surely does not need to rest or sleep as we do, He
took the time to do so, not for His sake per se. No, but for our
sake. For the main physical creature of His physical universe.
God RESTED the SEVENTH DAY, from the work He had done, and so
BLESSED the seventh day, and SANCTIFIED it! He SET IS APART from
all the other six days.
He was teaching us humans that REST is IMPORTANT. Work and
play are to be part of our lives but REST, coming away from our
six work and play days is also important. God is not a God of all
work and play and no rest. Indeed many people are all work and
play seven days a week, 365 days a year. But God is not for that
life style. He wants, He desires, that we stop our usual work and
play we do on the six days, and REST and worship Him in a special
way on the SEVENTH day. This example He set for us, is as can be
clearly seen, with the mind of a child, that it is only THE
SEVENTH DAY, not the first day, or the sixth day, but the SEVENTH
day that is blessed and set apart. And the FOURTH of the great
Ten Commandments adds proof to this truth of what we today call
the weekly Sabbath day.
God's mind knows that His created physical human beings that
He created on the sixth day, need to worship Him in a special
way every SEVENTH day. God is not above taking a rest from
creating and working. He enters a special time frame in His
universe every seventh day (as that day arrives upon earth to all
people in various lands) to have a special relationship with
those who will honor Him on the seventh day of the week.
THE ULTIMATE CREATION
It was on the sixth day that God created man and woman, as
written in Genesis 1 and 2.
The truth of WHY He created mankind is wonderful beyond all
dreams. This is not the place to expound it here. I have already
expounded it in other studies on this Website. But the purpose
for human kind and the destiny God has in mind for the human
physical race is so SPLENDID it is hard to find words to relate
it. But I have tried to relate it to you in other studies.
God wants, DESIRES, LOVES, to SHARE all that He has with
others who can be like Him and His Son Jesus Christ. The one
passage alone of 1 John 3:1-3 is mind numbing in its simple but
breath-taking words.
God is the GREATEST GIVING AND SHARING individual in the
entire universe. His inner nature, His bedrock nature, His upper-
most and dominant nature, is to LOVE, to SHARE, to GIVE, to not
only be a Father but a FRIEND of the creation He has made, IF
that which He has created WANT Him to be their Father and friend.
God created man, the male, first. He Himself came down to
the dust of the ground, and formed man, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, as we are told in Genesis 2.
We see that God is quite willing to get personally involved
with humans at times. His master creation was going to be done by
Himself personally. God is a PERSONAL God, who is quite willing
to get down in the dust of the earth at times.
He put man into a beautiful garden we know as Eden. But you
will notice in verse 15 (chapter 2) that man was to "dress it and
keep it." Ah, we see here that God is not a "let nature have its
way and rule the day" type of person. We see He is a person that
desires His physical creation to be in order, to be kept dressed
properly and managed correctly. He teaches us here that certain
physical things in life need to be dressed and kept by mankind.
Our body (the New Testament says is the temple of God) needs to
be looked after. Our clothes we wear, our homes, our cars, our
work place, our play place, all we are physically given need to
be carefully cared for and looked after. Having our physical life
looking like as my dear Mother used to say, "looking like you
have been pulled through a hedge backwards" is not the way of the
Lord. Here we have the lessons Jesus often gave of using with
care, using properly, the talents or gifts we have been given. We
are to "dress and keep" our garden of Eden, be it small or large.
God is a God of "dress it and keep it" - ORDER, and
certainly not CONFUSION (1 Corinthians 14:33).
At the end of chapter 2 in Genesis, God sets limits and
boundaries. He knows what is GOOD and what is SIN and evil. He
has been around a little longer than we have. He was there when
some of the angels, one third to be exact (Revelation 12),
REBELLED against His law and order. He has the nature of a loving
Father, He guides and leads His sheep in the righteousness of
green pastures. He does not want to see them experience SIN! The
experience of sin is in the end NOT pleasant, but leads to sorrow
and eventually death. God loves to guide His children AWAY from
SIN! It is His nature to not see His people hurt by going the way
of un-righteousness. A kind and loving parent never wants to see
their children facing the consequences of going in the wrong
directions of what they know is evil, and what the government of
the land knows brings evil and sorrow and death upon its citizens
(I presume of course the government of the land is not some crazy
despot or dictatorship of evil and sin itself).
God is a God who is concerned that His people do not get
entangled in sin!
Alone is not Good
The creator was never alone! As I've proved elsewhere, the
Godhead has always from eternity been TWO individual persons.
Today we call them the Father and the Son.
God the Father is not a "loner" as some people end up being.
It is a sad and sorry case when you see a person end up being all
by themselves, people, who for whatever reason, have decided to
be a loner.
The Eternal Father is no loner. He created man but realized
it was not good for man to be alone.
We see gain the personal involvement God wants us to have
with Himself. He puts man to sleep, takes a rib, and with it
forms a woman, so called because she was taken from out of man.
God brings her to the man and tells them they are made for each
other. He tells them it is good that a man leaves his father and
mother and cleaves to his wife. That they are made to be one
flesh for each other.
God is not a loner. People were created to not get off some
place, be it city, or country-side, and be alone with no other
contact but themselves and themselves, or even themselves and
their dog or cat or horse. There may be periods of time (i.e. as
Jesus was by Himself for 40 days and 40 night) when being alone
is good and right, but in the overall of life, the loner type is
not the way of the Lord.
God is a God of camaraderie, sociability, friendships,
associates, comrades, pals, buddies, close acquaintances.
In two relatively short chapters, the two first chapters of
Genesis, we have discovered things about God that many Christians
have never found in years and years of claiming Christ's name.
All we need to do is read the Word as a child, let it speak to
us, let God enter our mind so He can say to us, "This is what I
want you to know about me. I DO want you to know MANY things
about me. I hereby lay Myself OPEN before you. Please learn of
Me!"
..................
To be continued
This study began in October 2008
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