Origins, Endings, and in Between

My church is currently in a series of sermons on the first three chapters of the bible. It is called “Origins”. Granted, by the time I finish this post, we will likely be studying something else. But that is fine. Its cracking me up, how God works. I started working on my last post three weeks ago. What I was planning to write about was this: I am created in God’s image.  After working on it for a week, I came to church to discover that the sermon this week was called….created in God’s image. Well, there went my title. So, when I posted it, I renamed it, “My Worldview”. 

At about the same time, I started reading a new book, one that had sat around for a couple of months on my shelf. The book is a commentary about Genesis and it is one of a set on books on the first five books of bible (the Torah) by Dennis Prager called The Rational Bible. So, I started with the introduction, xxxiv pages long.  I guess you need different numbers, or it is letters, for your introduction? But man, what a rational, beautiful, concise explanation of the necessity of the biblical worldview. It was amazing to read as I was working on my worldview. I think God was trying to get my attention. And it worked. So, I am working again on my worldview. 

So, this is the introduction to this post. In case you were wondering, it is ccxxxvi words long.

Creation explains the origins of everything. Universe and its stars and galaxies, earth and living things, the laws that govern nature, day and night, seasons and years and even weeks, man and woman, sex, our stewardship of the creation, and free will. 

Free will is foundational to understand human life. Because we are created in God’s image, we have the freedom to choose.  I get to choose, life or death, freedom or bondage, blessing or curses. I get to choose living my life on my terms, or on God’s terms. Good or bad, the pivotal moments of my life happened because of a choice.  

Creation tells us what is good in the world, six times in the first chapter of the bible God said it was good. And then on the sixth day of creation, it says this, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” Gen 1.31. What was created was very good, and then God rested from his work.

But then something happened. Sin happened, and everything broke.  We live in this wonderful beautiful world that is broken. I can’t explain how that happened, it doesn’t make sense, how one choice could affect, not just our lives, but also everything that was created, but it did. Everywhere you look you can find decay and death, but you also can find beauty and life. The biblical worldview explains the good in the world. It also explains the bad in the world, that it didn’t happen in creation, and it is our fault. We chose it.

It is hard to imagine what life was like in the garden of Eden. All we know is what living in this broken world feels like. The garden of Eden seems like a fairy tale. There was no death, everything was good, nothing was bad, life was perfect. When the serpent said to Eve, “for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He was right, but he neglected to say that everything she had known was already good, but now she would know evil. And that happened. Now we know evil in the world that used to be perfect. That is the reality we live in. That is where I live, but that is not where I was meant to live. I was created to live in a perfect world. Wow, I was created to live in a perfect world. I long to live again in a world deemed good by the creator instead of the broken world we live in.  

There is a word for that. Redemption. God is redeeming what is broken. 

There is a future tense to redemption, and there is also that here and now tense of redemption.  God redeems our life right now. And though we have to live in the broken world for a while, one day we will be in paradise. Redemption is the answer to the problem, the problem we created back in the garden when we chose to sin in the world that was made perfect.  Like the problem, the answer starts with a choice. Choosing life over death, choosing to say yes to the invitation that God offered. An offer for a new life in this world, and eternal life in heaven. 

The biblical worldview gives me so much hope, hope for a good life in spite of the circumstances and hope for me and this broken world at the end.

My worldview begins with creation and ends with redemption. Those are the bookends of my worldview.  Between those bookends, the beauty of creation that lived in the past (the garden of Eden) and the beauty of redeemed world in the future (heaven, paradise), is this broken world. I live between the bookends. 

The bookends are there. The foundation had been laid. But I have a confession to make. It is easier for me to exhibit faith in regards to creation and redemption than it is to open the door of faith into the here and now.  I believe in what God did in creation, and I believe in what God is going to do when he redeems the world and makes everything new.  But in the day-to-day world I live in, I usually rely on what I can see. I don’t use my faith. I don’t use it as much as I could.  I’m realizing now, that having faith in God and living by faith are not exactly the same. I need to continue to build on the foundation that was laid. 

So, I’m starting to work again on the unseen things, things like, hearing the words of God, both written in the bible and spoken into my heart; things like wisdom and prayer and God’s purpose for my life.  I’m working on the unseen things with faith.  Yeah, the foundation is there, the bookends are there, I just need some more books. The life God wants for me it abundantly good; I just need to start believing. I need to start building.

I like my pastor, Perry Engle; I will often talk to him about my posts because I value his wisdom and his friendship. Today he is talking about redemption in the last sermon in the series called Origins. I am looking forward to it.  Plus, it is what I am working on as well. I finished up this post this morning and I am planning to post this after church.  I’m calling this, “Origins and Endings and in Between.” Unless Perry steals my title.