on a journey through the entire Bible

we begin our journey

through the word Genesis chapter 1 today

back to the very beginning of it all if

you have ever been fascinated by the

creative process or by watching an

artist or inventor at his work this is

as good as it gets it is the story of

creation and it starts at verse 1 in the

beginning God created the heavens and

the earth

so God starts out by setting the basic

building blocks in place in the

beginning time God created the heavens

space and the earth matter now God has a

workspace as though the great artist has

just set out the canvas and the paints

then in verse 2, the earth was without

form and void and darkness was over the

the face of the deep and the Spirit of God

was hovering over the face of the waters

and God said let there be light and

there was light is truly a wonder

light is so gracefully simple yet

complex beyond comprehension just try

asking your physics teacher to explain

what photons are made of or how they

move or better yet how they're formed

photons are awesome all the beauty of

the visible world comes to us by way of

light and verse 4 puts it very simply

God saw that light was good and many

ways light reminds me of God himself

first John says that God is light in him

there is no darkness at all when Jesus

entered the world the Bible describes

the event as light coming into the world

and so it was when Jesus entered my life

in my heart, it was as though the light

filled the darkness of my heart in my

mind and suddenly in the most complex

yet elegantly simple way I could see

notice that God separates the light from

darkness separating is a key work that

God does throughout the creation story

and he still separates the light from

dark in our lives today than in verse 5

there was evening and morning the first

the day the word day is an important one for

those of you wondering just how old the

earth is

were the days 24 hours long or much

longer as in millions of years each

Bible scholars argue this one and

there's a lot of science and study

behind it is definitely worth looking into

but way too much to cover here moving on

to day 2 verse 6 begins and God said let

there be an expanse in the midst of the

waters and let it separate the waters

from the waters

the expanse in the verse is the sky the

the great accomplishment of day 2 with

clouds above and oceans below now as you

read through the creation story keep in

mind that God was not simply putting the

water and sky here and there as he

pleased he was designing the very nature

of things gravity and temperature

evaporation and condensation that makes

the water cycle possible the water cycle

is amazing and all of life would be

impossible without it and did you

realize that the evolution theory offers

no explanation for the water cycle

because it's nonliving atheistic

evolution attempts to explain living

things but asked to rely on dumb luck

for the nature of light water gravity

magnetism and so many other natural laws

and elements that are set perfectly to

make life possible and if you think that

the Bible can't be trusted for matters

of science consider this the water cycle

was not understood by scientists until

the 16th century AD but the Bible

described it accurately back in the 9th

century BC in Ecclesiastes 1 and even

earlier in job 36 so how do you like

them apples

and speaking of apples day 3 gives us

the very first signs of life God brings

dry land out of the vast seas and in

verse 11 God said let the earth sprout

vegetation plants yielding seed and

fruit trees bearing fruit in which as

their seed each according to its kind on

the earth and it was so now this is

amazing to me God made the beauty in

color an amazing complexity of the

plants and he made them out of dirt and

inside of every living plant and tree

God placed seeds are incredible

every tiny unimpressive seed hides

within it the detailed blueprints and

complete construction plan for an entire

plant or flower or tree from roots to

stem to bark to leaves to branches to

fruit it's all in there coated in a

language more complex than any that man

can speak even the tools and machinery

for construction are tucked away inside

that little seed see all of life is self

reproducing from the very beginning and

that is astoundingly complex mankind has

never created a physical machine that

replicates itself some of the world's

smartest are trying it and it's crazy

complicated and again the evolution

the theory is forced to rely on dumb luck

for this one the very first living thing

must be intricate enough to reproduce

another version of itself to me that is

like saying a bomb was dropped on a

mountain with aluminum ore in it and

out of the rubble came a working jet

airplane and the airplane by pure dumb

luck made baby airplanes that are

evolution step one so the land was

planted and once again in verse 12 God

saw that it was good

I like this if you've ever designed and

built something that came from

your own creative spark and imagination

you know what it's like to step back and

just look at it working it is good then

day four begins in verse 14 and here God

fills the expanse of space with the

Stars and the Sun and the moon and all

their awesomeness did you know that the

the moon is sized and placed with incredible

precision set perfectly in its orbit for

light seasons and tides that make life

possible for the details and lots more

information about the impeccable design

of our little planet, I'll recommend to

you a book and a movie both of which are

called

the privileged to plan it once again God

saw that it was good and a-five brings

us into the creation of all the birds

and the vast array of sea life in the

world's oceans God told all the fish to

be fruitful and are they ever no time to

rest yet day six brings us back to dry

land for the creation of all the animals

and verse 24 God made them all out of

dirt and each one according to their

kinds that phrase is repeated several

times which means that it's important

the word kind essentially means species

God made male and female creatures of

each speech

then allowed for mutations to give us

the vast variety of animals we have

today after all of the creatures are set

in place, God creates the most complex

and magnificent machine in the known

universe humans first twenty six then

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 birds of the heavens and over

the livestock and over all the earth and

over every creeping thing that creeps on

the earth so God created man in his own

image in the image of God he created him

male and female he created them this is

the pinnacle of creation two essential

things to watch for as you read here the

image of God and the Dominion of man the

image of God is perhaps the most

the important and most fascinating element

in all of God's creation, it is as though

God placed his signature on the painting

he marked his work of art with a seal

his own image what does it mean to be

made in God's image I'll let you think

about that and we'll come back to it in

chapter five then we see the Dominion of

man understand that God's call for

mankind to rule is not a call to tyranny

and abuse of all nature we were made in

God's image and we are called to rule in

God's way with responsibility and

righteousness compassion and care a

godly ruler is a servant to that which

he rules and we are called to tend to

the earth as a good shepherd his sheep

or as a farmer his fields so the work is

done

six times during the creation process

God stops just to see how good it is

then after six days of hard work when

it's all complete and a young couple is

busy taking it all in

God stops one more time to look at it in

verse 31 and God saw everything that he

had made and behold it was very good and

there was evening and there was morning

On the sixth day read Genesis one today and

if you get one thing from this chapter I

hope that you will take some time each

day to do just what God did stop looking

around at what he made and see that it

is very good now the world that you see

today is a corrupted version of what God

saw on dates

six sin has added all kinds of bad to the

good but if you will just look you are

still surrounded by the goodness of

God's creation so read the chapter and

take some advice from the book of Job

37-14 stop and consider God's wonders. Amen.