Daily Reading: Genesis 1 & 2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
How appropriate! As we begin our challenge, we read about THE BEGINNING.......
Genesis 1:1 Footnote: The simple statement that God created the heavens and the earth is one of the most challenging concepts confronting the modern mind. The vast galaxy we live in is spinning at the incredible speed of 490,000 miles an hour. But even at this breakneck speed, our galaxy still needs 200 million years to make one rotation. And there are over one billion other galaxies just like ours in the universe.
Some scientists say that the number of stars in creation is equal to all the grains of all the sands on all the beaches of the world. Yet this complex sea of spinning stars functions with remarkable order and efficiency. To say that the universe "just happened" or "evolved" requires more faith than to believe that God is behind these amazing statistics. God truly did create a wonderful universe.
God did not need to create the universe; he chose to create it. Why? God is love, and love is best expressed toward something or someone else -- so God created the world and people as an expression of his love. We should avoid reducing God's creation to merely scientific terms. Remember that God created the universe because he loves each of us.
Genesis 2:16, 17 Footnote: Why would God place a tree in the garden and then forbid Adam to eat from it? God wanted Adam to obey, but God gave Adam the freedom to choose. Without choice, Adam would have been like a prisoner, and his obedience would have been hollow. The two trees provided an exercise in choice, with rewards for choosing to obey and sad consequences for choosing to disobey. When you are faced with the choice, always choose to obey God.
Genesis 2:18-24 Footnote: God's creative work was not complete until he made woman. He could have made her from the dust of the ground, as he made man. God chose, however, to make her from the man's flesh and bone. In so doing, he illustrated for us that in marriage man and woman symbolically become one flesh. This is a mystical union of the couple's hearts and lives. Throughout the Bible, God treats this special partnership seriously. The goal in marriage should be more than friendship; it should be oneness.
These are just a few interesting footnotes from this section of reading. Do you have any thoughts or information to share? Please comment!
This was probably a very familiar section of scripture -- one you've heard many times -- ask God to show you something you've never seen before.
Keep reading -- 364 days left!
All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV.
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