Tag: Creation

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New year devotion: in the beginning

Devotion: In the beginning

a mock-up happy new year greeting
hew year greeting

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth

Commentary

The Bible begins with, in the beginning, God. When was the beginning? Who created the universe and when? The Hebrew word for create is bara, which means, to create something out of nothing. In the beginning, in the eternity past, God created the entire universe into existence out of nothing. 

God has no beginning because He is transcendent and outside our time-space continuum. He is pre-existent, self-existent, eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, from the eternity past to the eternity future. He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the Alef and the Tau, the A and the Z, the author and finisher of our faith. 

God created the universe in six days. God’s reckoning of time is not the same as our reckoning of time. One day for God can be long as 1000 years and 1000 years for God can be as short as one day. Time is relative. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, if you travel close to the speed of light time slows down. How fast can God travel? If God travels faster than the speed of light, time will standstill and the clock will stop ticking! So, 2000 years of our time can be as short as 2 days in God’s time. This is something for us to think about.

1 Peter 3:8, but don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

There are three theories regarding the universe. The young age theory postulates the universe to be 6000-plus years old. The old age theory postulates the universe to be 4.5 billion-plus years old. The gap theory postulates a time gap of billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. 

The Bible is not ambiguous. The Bible says that God created the universe into existence. The Bible did not say mention any big explosion in space.

The Gospel of John begins with in the beginning, Jesus Christ.

John 1:1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Jesus Christ was the Word, who was with God, and who was God.

Application

I find it is easier to believe in creation than in the big bang explosion. If you believe that God created the heavens and the earth, you will not have any difficulty believing the rest of the Bible. So, how big is your God? And how big is your faith?

Romans 12:2, J.B Philips, Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands, and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to enlighten and give us wisdom and understanding into Your word. Open our hearts, minds, eyes, ears, and spirits to receive, understand, hear, see, feel, and apply Your word of eternal life into our very own lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Dr ANDREW C S KOH

a mock-up image
Categories
bible study devotion

Devotion: Creation

Genesis 1:1-4

by Dr. Andrew C S Koh

a picture of God creating Adam
Creation of Adam

Creation

God created the world in six days. Whether this is a literal 24 hours day or not is something that is hotly debated. According to God’s reckoning, 1 day is as 1000 years and 1000 years is as 1 day, 2 Peter 3:8. God created, transcends, and is outside of the time, and space continuum. There are two schools of thought regarding the age of the universe. Is the age billions of years old or is the universe 6000 plus years old? There is also the gap theory. Is there an interval of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2? These are hotly debated issues among Bible scholars. As far as the Bible is concerned God is the creator of the universe. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. The universe is not a product of a massive explosion billions of years ago. The universe is not a product of random chance and mutations. Human beings did not evolve from monkeys or gorillas

“But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”

2 Peter 3:8,

The Beginning

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Genesis 1: 1-4

Commentary

The Bible begins with “in the beginning God created”. We do not know when this beginning was. Is it billions of years or thousands of years? God created the universe in eternity past. The universe did not evolve by random chance over billions of years. It takes a lot more faith to believe in evolution than creation. God has no beginning. He is outside the time-space continuum. He is pre-existent, self-existent, eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, from eternity past to eternity future, from the Alpha, and to the Omega.

The six days of creation have a pre-set template, starting with “let there be…..” and ending with ”there was evening and there was morning………”

On the first day, God created the heavens, the earth, and the light. There are three heavens. The atmosphere from the ground to the clouds is the first heaven. The outer space from the clouds to the galaxies is the second heaven. The abode of God’s throne beyond the galaxies is the third heaven. When God created the earth, it was dark, empty, and structureless. Hebrews word for create is bara, which means to create something out of nothing, or ex-nihilo in latin.

God separated the light and the darkness, calling the darkness, evening, and the light, morning, and this was the first day. God defined a day as one evening and one morning. A Jewish day starts from 6 pm in the evening until 6 pm the next evening.

The Holy Spirit circled around the formless, structureless, dark, empty, and watery earth. God spoke, let there be light and light appeared on site. This was not the light of the sun but the light of God’s glory, Revelation 21:23. Jesus Christ is the word of God’s word, John 1:1.

The Trinitarian God of the Bible, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created the universe. God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness and called them day and night. Hebrews for God is Elohim, a plural noun.

In the presence of the Holy Spirit, God, the Father spoke, and it came to be. Jesus Christ is the spoken Word of God, the father.

The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moons, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Revelation 21:23,

“in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

John 1:1,

Application

Genesis declared that everything is created by God. If you believe that God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days, you will have no problem believing the rest of the Bible. How big is your God? How big is your faith? It takes more faith to believe in evolution than in creation. Faith is the key to unlocking spiritual truth. Believe and you will see the glory of God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, help us to understand Your word. We pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and to give us wisdom and understanding. Open our hearts, minds, eyes, ears, and spirit to receive, understand, see, apply, honour, and hear the truth of Your word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotion: Sabbath

The Creation of Adam who reclines at left and touching the hand of God by Cherubino Alberti (Zaccaria Mattia) is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

by Dr. Andrew C S Koh

Genesis 2:1-3

A photo of God creating Adam
The creation of Adam

Sabbath

.

1 The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished. 2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done

Genesis 2:1-3

Commentary

Genesis 1 is an overall account of the first week of creation. Genesis 2 zeroed in specifically on the sixth and seventh day of creation

On the sixth day, God created Adam, animals, birds and Eve. On the seventh day, God rested from His work of creation. He blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

The Hebrew word for God is Elohim. El is singular and Elohim is plural. The Hebrew word for blessed is baruch, which means praise, happy, favoured, or a good report. The number 7 is the number of completion. God completed His work of creation on the 7th day and rested. The Hebrew word for holy is qadesh, which means sanctified, set apart, or separated.

Application

The 7th day of the week is the Sabbath day. Sabbath starts from sundown on Friday and finished at sundown on Saturday. In the Old Testament, the Israelites stopped doing work on the Sabbath as stipulated in the Mosaic law. The difficulty is defining what is work and what is not work.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

Exodus 20:10

The Jews today still keep the Sabbath by not doing any work.

If you are a Gentile Christian, you do not have to stop doing work from Friday sundown until Saturday sundown. The Jerusalem council of Acts 15, freed Gentiles Christians from keeping the Mosaic laws except for drinking blood and committing sexual immorality.

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell

Legalism verses freedom

Acts 15:28-29

For Gentile Christians, the principle of the Sabbath is to take a rest from work one day out of every seven days. You can also take a longer rest from work if you wish. How about one week out of every 7 weeks or 1 year out of every 7 years? This is a principle to apply, not a legalistic law to enforce. The principle is to have time to rest from work so that you can seek the Lord in spiritual things. A regular rest from work is required to reflect, recollect, recharge, re-energise, and re-connect with God, yourself and others. A regular rest will prevent you from getting burnt out. If you do not rest, you will fall sick, and you will be forced to rest. Even computers machines requires a rest periodically for maintenance.

The Sabbath rest is an opportunity to be free even for one day. Freedom from work, from anxieties, from the tyranny of the urgent, from the routine of daily life. The Sabbath rest allows you to free your minds from the demands of the world to concentrate on spiritual matters and on God.

The Pharisees became so legalistic over the law of Sabbath-keeping to the extent of causing a burden to the people and to themselves.

The Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath because He healed people on the Sabbath. Jesus created the Sabbath for the benefit of people and not the other way around. As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus superseded the Sabbath. Jesus had the authority to set aside the demands of Sabbath keeping. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath. Jesus frees you from bondage to sin and death. Jesus invites you to come to Him for rest.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest

Matthew 11:28

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are the God of creation, the God of salvation, the God of redemption, and the God of reconciliation. You are wonderful, counselor, prince of peace, mighty God, and everlasting Father. You are Lord of the Sabbath. Help us to rest in You. Free us from bondage to sin, fear, anxiety, depression, and pessimism, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Dr ANDREW C S KOH

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Devotion: the beginning

Daybreak at Gale Crater by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1

a satellite image of the earth from outer space
Satellite image of the earth from outer space

 

Commentary

Genesis begins with “in the beginning”. When is the beginning? Who created what?

The Hebrew word for “create” is bara, which means, to create something out of nothing.

In the beginning, in eternity past, God created the entire universe out of nothing.

God has no beginning because He is transcendent and outside our time-space continuum. God is pre-existent, self-existent, eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, from eternity past to eternity future. He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the alif and the tau, the A and the Z, the author and finisher of our faith.

God created the universe in six days. God’s reckoning of time is not the same as our reckoning of time. 1 day for God can be long as 1000 years and 1000 years can be as short as 1 day.

2 Peter 3:8, “But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” 

In God’s divine calendar, 2000 years can be as short as 2 days!

There are three theories regarding the universe. The young age theory postulates the universe to be 6000-plus years old. The old age theory postulates the universe to be 4.5 billion-plus years old. The gap theory postulates a time gap of billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

The Bible says that God created the universe into existence. There is no record of a big bang theory or evolution.

The Gospel of John also begins with “in the beginning.”  In the beginning, Jesus Christ, the word of God was with God and was God.

in the beginning, was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God

John 1:1

Application

I find it is easier to believe in creation than in evolution. If you can believe that God created the heavens and the earth, you will have no problems believing the rest of the Bible.

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity

Romans 12:2, J B Philips

Prayer

Heavenly Father, We pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to enlighten and give us wisdom and understanding of Your word. Open our hearts, minds, eyes, ears, and spirits to receive, understand, see, hear, feel, and apply Your word of eternal life, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Dr ANDREW C S KOH

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