The Beginning

THE STORY chapter #1

My home church is participating in the study of THE STORY – The Bible As One Continuing Story Of God And His People. The program includes a participant’s guide titled, THE STORY: Getting to the Heart of God’s Story, by Randy Frazee with Kevin and Sherry Harney. For the next thirty one weeks I will be reading THE STORY and studying from the guide book, focusing my Friday blog post on our study chapter. Today marks the first post dedicated to this program.

THE STORY

Depending on how you view it, seven days can seem long or short. My longest seven days were right before giving birth to my daughter. I was large, my ankles were swollen and on top of that my nose was stuffy from a head cold. My shortest seven days are usually the week between Christmas and New Years. I feel once the excitement of Christmas morning passes, the holiday is over.

God knows how to maximize a week, because the Bible tells us that God created the universe, the earth, and everything on it, all in just six days. Then He rested on the seventh day. Here is His order of Creation-

Day one – Watery, formless, empty earth. Light. Separation of light and darkness (days).
Day two – Sky, to separate water on the earth from water above the earth.
Day three – Land. Seas. Seed bearing plants. Trees that bear fruit with seed in it.
Day four – Sun. Moon. Stars. All used to mark days and years.
Day five – Water creatures. Birds.
Day six – Livestock. Creatures that move along the ground. Wild animals. Mankind in His own image.
Day seven – God rested.

God used six days to create a perfect order. Notice He did not make man first. If He did, man would not have food, water or light. And notice He did not make plants before creating sky and sun, both necessary to make plants grow. God is the Master-creator, and at His command, all things were made to work together with precise accuracy in a flawless cycle.

Knowing that man is made in the image of God, tells us how important we are to Him. And He created us, to have a direct relationship with Him. I pray that through the continuing weeks of studying The Story, we all grow in our journey of understanding the love we receive from this amazing God we serve, thus lifting him up, as we continue to grow in a direct relationship Him.