In the beginning, God

mark this:  Genesis 1:1-3
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.


I knew Genesis was approaching soon, but it wasn't until yesterday that I noticed the specific reading schedule for today. Here it is:

The Word for today:
Genesis 1, 2

Alright. I've got one blog article to do justice to the seminal chapters of scripture. Where to begin?

They say a good thing to do when you don't know where to start is to start at the very beginning.  And so I will:

In the beginning, God

Stop right there.  You have come to the major crossroad in scripture.

If you can meet these first four words with faith, then this book will open up before you. Avenues of wide wonder await you. Love without limits lies straight ahead.

If you can trust these four words, then I would go to the nearest mirror and say goodbye to the self you used to know. This book has a way of changing things.

But if those four words meet resistance in your spirit, then I would put the book down for now.  It has nothing to give you.  You will find it to be poor--just a hodgepodge of antiquated characters, endless genealogies, irrelevant rituals, and stories whose meanings you will never grasp.  So take the left or the right--it won't matter which--that your heart desires.  Life will sift you and perhaps you'll pass through this intersection again someday, but with a different heart.

God, from the very beginning, has based a knowledge of him on just one thing--faith:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the people of old received their commendation.
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:1-3)

If you will believe the opening words, then vistas seen only through the eyes of God loom just ahead.  God will lend you his very eyes to see them, and his very mind to perceive them, and his very Spirit will introduce you to his very Son,

who is very man of very man and very God of very God,

and very, very much in love with--of all people--you.

***

God's Spirit hovers, poised and ready. But, odd as it may sound, the beginning is up to you. If you let there be light, there will be light.

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