Issue 1411 – In the Beginning – April 3, 2024
Good morning
I was pondering beginnings this morning. Some time back, I found a treasure trove of old back issues online in an archive. It took some doing, but I probably salvaged close to 100.
Gleanings had a pretty inauspicious beginning. I had decided to try writing, and I knew that to do so would require actually writing something and doing it on a regular basis. So, on January 1, 2001, I committed to writing a short daily devotional online at a site that allowed anyone to write stuff.
This was long before things like blogs existed. I managed to do it, and some people even read it. It wasn’t the best of Gleanings, but it was a start that carried on for nearly 4500 issues before I hung up my writing spurs for a while.
The Bible starts, of all places, at the beginning of the story.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1
We see that theme echoed in John’s gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3
Those few words start the initial revelation of God and His plan of redemption for fallen humanity. They are also very controversial words.
What God? When was the beginning? Hasn’t the universe always existed? Surely, there is no God. How long did it take? How did He do it? Isn’t that just another myth? … and so on.
I’m not even going to attempt to answer those questions this morning. Some of them are quite valid questions, and some of them involve logical fallacies. all are beyond the scope of the short space we have.
“In the beginning” tells us that there was a point where the material universe as we know it did not exist, and yet something (actually someone) was there. Even good science affirms that. I may disagree with their explanation and their time frame, but they acknowledge there was a time of nothing.
God created. This says so much about God. He is complete in and of Himself, yet He must also be a God of incredible power and creativity. He conceived of something that had never existed in its myriad forms. Then, He made it happen on a mind-blowing scale.
This wasn’t a child making something with Lego or Play-Do. Starting with nothing, He created a universe so vast that NASA says that it is at least 28 billion light-years across. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take 28 billion years to get from one side to the other. I can’t fathom the speed of light, let alone travelling 28 billion years. Let’s just leave it as God created something so big that we can’t fathom it.
He put into place all the laws of physics and mathematics that govern how the material world functions. He created life and everything needed to sustain life in place.
Things that we take for granted like daylight and oxygen and gravity, were made from nothing.
He created the heavens and the earth in all their vast array and put life on this little blue planet.
All of that is incredible. Even if we knew nothing other than the beginning sentence of the Bible we would have enough to ponder and marvel about for eternity.
Of course we know that the God who reveals Himself in the Bible didn’t just create the world, wind it up and let it go. He stays intimately involved in the lives of His creation and He loves us.
It is no wonder that the Scriptures themselves declare God and His Words as marvellous in many places.
As Christians, we also have a second beginning. We are born again into a Living Hope. That is a miracle on par with the creation of everything. People often cry out that they want to see a miracle. Every time a sinner is reborn as a believer and given the righteousness of Christ, there is a powerful new beginning and a miracle of incredible power.
Until next time, take some time to ponder the God who is so powerful and creative that He spoke everything into existence. He is the same God who brings wretched, depraved sinners out of bondage into freedom with Him forever.
May He forever be given the honour and glory due to His name.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)