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Category Archives: Devotional Studies Through the Bible
>Grieved in His Heart
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>People Get Ready
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>Must Be Alive To Die
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>Attitude Adjustment
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>Never Without Hope
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>Covenant of Marriage
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Oh Father, may I be presented to my Bridegroom “as a pure virgin”
(2 Corinthians 11:2).
>Created For His Pleasure
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Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26
How many times have you read God’s Word and never seen “let us” and “our image”? So many times I read this phrase and never realized what it said. It does not say “let me” or “my image.” God uses plural words to speak of Himself. The beautiful Trinity is once again seen so clearly if we will only look.
God, three persons in one, made man in His likeness. God gave us just a small insight into who He is in His creation of man. Man is body, mind, and spirit. We are in a sense a triune being.
God also illustrates His likeness to us through the dominion that he gave man over the earth. God holds dominion over all. He is the supreme, sovereign ruler over all creation, and in His likeness He created man. He created man to also have dominion, dominion under His authority; on this place he called earth.
God created earth for man. God designed it to be able to sustain our life. He created every provision we would need for life before He ever fashioned Adam from the earth. He is a God of order and detail. God forms, and then God fills.
He formed the sky then filled it with stars. He formed the water then filled it with fish. He formed the land and then filled it with beast. When he commanded the earth to sprout forth its vegetation and commanded the trees out of the ground, they came fully grown, ready to reproduce.
When all was ready and good, God created man.
God created man to have fellowship with Him. God created man for His own pleasure. God created you for His pleasure.
Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that God will exult over us with joy and will quiet us with His love and rejoice over us with shouts of joy. We are formed by the hand of a Holy God, created in His image, according to His likeness, and we are filled with the breath of His life.
This was our beginning, but as we go further into Genesis, we will discover how we lose our dominion and even more frightful, how we lose the likeness of the image of our Creator. But oh, precious one, our Creator has not forsaken us. Jesus Christ, God the Son, has come, and in Christ, we once more begin to bear the image of our Creator.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read that in Christ we are being transformed back into the image of our Lord from glory to glory. We were created bearing the image of our Creator and having dominion over the earth under the authority of our God, and only in and through Christ can we, to this purpose, be eternally restored.
Oh Father,
You created us with intent and purpose. You created us because You wanted us. You created me because You wanted me, and not just for a short time; You created me for eternity. You loved me so much that when mankind fell, You sent Your Son to earth in flesh to make the way for me to return to my eternity with You.
Someday, my Father, because of my faith in Christ, I’ll get to walk again in the garden with You. One day I’ll see Your face. One day I’ll be held in Your embrace. Oh Father, thank You for loving me.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.
>Elohim
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We next see the creation of space and matter. God created the universe and the very components that make it exist. Components that in themselves represent the essence of who He is, the blessed Trinity. If one component was missing, the universe would not exist—each component unique yet equally needed, all three working together to form the one universe.
Then we see that “God called,” which in Hebrew is qara. It means He named with authority, He proclaimed and called out to, and He properly addressed His creation by name. When we read “God made,” in Hebrew it is “God asah” and means that He fashioned, He formed, and He finished.
One of the last action verbs in chapter one is “God blessed.” Blessed in Hebrew is barak. It means to praise, to salute, to adore. Have you ever considered the thought that God looked over all His creation, which included man, which includes you, and he adored it?
You spoke, and the earth formed.
You control time, space, and matter.
You shape and form the very dust of the earth, every star in the sky.
You alone put the sun in its place, and by your word, it shines.
Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
Psalm 147:4 says, “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.”
You uphold all things by the word of your power (Hebrews 1:3).
My Jesus, you are Creator of all things (John 1:3), and all things were created through you and for you (Colossians 1:16).
You are the center of the universe, the beginning and the end.
Worthy are you, my Jesus, the Lamb, standing as if slain (Revelation 5:6).
Slain for my redemption, to pay my debt, to reconcile me to you, my Father God. Slain to make me holy, to be my righteousness, to bring me life. Slain to bring me back to where God said it was good.
Oh thank you, my Elohim! You are all this and more, and yet still you adore me. Oh may your Holy Spirit fill me, teach me, guide me, and create in me a clean and pure heart. May you, my Father, be able to joyfully look upon me.
My Jesus, it’s in your name I pray,
Amen
>Introduction to Devotions From Genesis It’s Not Just Ancient History
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