Comprehending Creation

Comprehending Creation

Sept 6-7

Gen 1:1,26-28;2:7;
Acts 17:24-26;
Hebrews 11:3

No this isn't heaven, just Texas. You can tell by the Blue Bonnets

Just to look at this scene inspires a person to pause... to think

Remember the words in Job , "Where were you when..."

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1. 
   
   • Gen 1:1,26-28;2:7;
     
     
     
     1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
     
     26 ¶ And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
     
     27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
     
     28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
     and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that move upon the earth.
     
   • Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
     and man became a living soul.
     
   
   

   God offered his own explanation in this thing called the Bible.
   
   To believe the verse, God said, "I did it!" It would have been enough to say, "I Did It!"
   
   But it says more; He says he made; us in His own image, and that He made us to have dominion.
   
   

   
   

   So How many times do we make a small oversight that turns into a larger oversight.
   .
   Forgetting that He said to have dominion we soon overlook the reality that He made this world.
   
   The implication to this fact is that if He made this world He might have something to say about how things in this world go.
   
   So, is it about us or Him, does He, being the author, have any residual authority?
   
   Remembering the Psalm 91: "It is He that made us and mot we ourselves!"
   
   

   It seems to me that is isn't only whether He He actually made the world,
   but what that means for you, me, us now!
   How does that change our decisions, our actions.
   
   There are those that say this world has continued un uninterrupted for thousands of years. This has the effect for them to permit them to do what ever they want to
   do with no regard for what He residing far away in heaven,
   might have to say about what ever they wanted to do. .
   
   So, the question we have is this: Is Jesus really our  LORD? ,
   
   Or do we really run our own lives quite independent of Him?
   
   
   
   Additionally, does this assertion in Genesis &quot formed man of the dust of the ground (His  dust) and breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, making him a living soul give him any residual claim to our bodies, souls and Spirit?
   That is, Do we really run our own lives quite independent of Him?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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2. 
   
   • Acts 17:24-26;24
     
     God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands;
     25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing,
     
     seeing he gives to all: life, breath, and all things; 
     
     26 He caused to spring from one forefather people of every race, for them to live on the whole surface of the earth, and marked out for them an appointed span of life and the boundaries of their homes;
     27 that they might seek God, if perhaps they could grope for Him and find Him. Yes, though He is not far from any one of us.
     
     28 For it is in closest union with Him that we live and move and have our being;
     
     as in fact some of the poets in repute among yourselves have said,
     
     ‘For we are also His offspring.’
     
     29 Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to imagine that His nature resembles gold or silver or marble,
     
     or anything sculptured by the art and inventive faculty of man.
     
     30 Those times of ignorance God viewed with indulgence.
     
     But now He commands all men everywhere to repent,
     
     
     
     
     
     



Here we have Paul the apostle speaking to an assembly of Greeks at the place of conversation.

This was the place the men of the town went to cuss, discuss, and generally discourse over the things of the day.

Not having newspapers or other media, this is the place the community went to &quot have a drink"
meet with friends, and talk of the world matters. This gave the first example of the quote:
I decide all the large issues, She decides all the others. The large issues were those discussed at Mars Hill.


So Paul has come into town (Athens, Greece,) he always chose the most prominent town in the region to start,
He goes to the place of meeting, and when his turn comes, begins to discourse some     "new ideas."
Their culture reveled in hearing and debating new ideas. Not having the publication of media,

these people challenged new thought and new ideas testing the good and discarding those not practical.

Paul's goal was to win the area and region for the cause of Christ. To this end he

uses his education and the format available to him to achieve this end. Paul uses the items at hand

like the idols, the cultural precepts and familiarity with the people. As we noted a few weeks ago

every culture and people group has woven into the fabric of itself the key to salvation.

and personal knowledge of God through his Son Jesus. Adroitly Paul suggests that the &quot Unknown &quot god.

whom the people have acknowledged is truly the Living God.

He complements them on their forethought thus gaining their hearing.

Using this device he continues to reason through the obvious reality that has been hidden to them previously.

Many see the light. From those that do Paul starts the foundation of a church.

Every church he founded sprouted and grew from an idea, a thought, a word, a conviction, and a belief in that idea. So it is today. Each believer, each small group, each church, each Fellowship and Denomination ... even the church universal is based in belief in a few precepts. The belief in these concepts is the foundation of our spiritual lives. What you believe does make a difference. Like the Creation idea many can not be " proven " in the normal sense. These ideas are from a different plane and are either accepted or not based on their own merit. It is like the wind that cannot be seen. The proof of it's existence must be inferred from some evidence within it's own realm. Men place a set of cups on the end of arms and count how many times that it rotates per unit of time. The wind is still not seen. All of the other reasons for the movement of the cups are eliminated yielding a replication experiment and conclusion. In the same way believers have to reduce the possible explanations of the existence of this earth and our lives as well to a resulting conclusion. The "t cups " in the spirit world to measure the movement are personal for each believer. He might look at the before and the after to conclude the change over time. He might compare what he could have done by himself to what he can do with he help of the Spirit. These as well as other tools help to substantiate belief. In the end we are in the world but our reference is not of the world. Another tool is to reduce possible other explanations using the principles of probability and statistics. This is often used in research to reduce other possible explanations to near zero. Consider the chances of taking a bucket of dust and pitching it into the air so that when it falls (a function of gravity; another law of the world) it settles down into the shape of a high powered race car able to &quot safely &quot run two hundred miles per hour.It does all of that with out the aid of any outside influence.
What do you think?






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3. 
   
   • Hebrews 11:3
     
     3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
     
     so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
     

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     Faith connects the conscious rational part of ourselves with the nonconscious spirit part.
     
     John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
     
     God is Spirit. " Pneumatic " Those that would contact and interact must do so on His terms. That would be spirit to Spirit. A spiritual connection is made by acceptance. This also simply turns out to be a base need of each person. Not finding this often people will settle for the acceptance of a smaller group of people. In the ultimate one is enough. To be accepted by that one other person gives each one a foot hold to hold on to the spiritual realm.
     
     II Corinthians5:18-19: 18 And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and has appointed us to serve in the ministry of reconciliation.
     19 We are to tell how God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging men’s transgressions to their account, and that He has entrusted to us the Message of this reconciliation.
     
     Once again, Jesus was in the process of reconciliation when he looked at the woman caught in the very act of adultery and rather than charging her with he fault she deserved, He looked at her and said

     " neither do I condemn you go and sin no more." He did not over look the sin He simply did not charge her with the guilt of it.
     
     
     
     

     
     
     

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