Christian Living

In the Beginning

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
03/29/18
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  (Genesis 1:1)

These first ten words of the Bible are not so much to me as a statement but an answer to the question. Where? Where did the universes come from? Where did the world come from? And more importantly to us where did man come from? And certainly more important to me, where did I come from? So here in the first ten words of the Bible, we have the answer, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If we can get our mind wrapped around these first words of the Bible, if we can fully comprehend what these words are saying, then the rest of the Bible, as miraculous as it may be, is totally believable.

Since the beginning man has asked those questions and to this day is still asking those questions. Man has searched every thought, turned over every rock, and looked all through our God’s creation for the answer. Man has involved himself and foolishly believed in many theories that claim to be the answer to these questions. A definition of theory is a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, esp. one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. But a theory in spite of what the intelligent one might think, it is only an unproven thought, it is built upon circumstantial facts, a theory is not a fact unto itself, and it is not a truth.

The Big Bang Theory is a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, esp. one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. It is a theory that the universe began with an explosion of a dense mass of matter and is still expanding from the force of that explosion. That theory would require a tremendous amount of energy inside a ball of matter big enough to contain all matter in the universe and require a release of that energy far beyond the comprehensible imagination. But the truth of energy is that it dissipates, it is not eternal, and it dwindles to nothing. Does your car not run out of fuel, do you not constantly have to buy power, and why then are we in constant search for new energy sources?

What binds the expanding universe together? Is it not gravity that sets the course of our expanding universe? Would it not be rather circumstantial to think all of that is happening by accident? How did Isaiah know this so many thousands of years ago when he wrote under the influence of the Holy Spirit, “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” (Isaiah 40:22) It is because our God told him, he believed our God, and on faith wrote it that we may also know the truth.

You may believe in that which you choose, you may believe in the imaginations of the creation, but as for me, I shall believe in the words of the Creator. It is far less confusing than the psychobabble of the intellectual foolish. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

“In the beginning God,” so who is God? God is not a name it is a title. The Hebrew word for God in this text is elohiym. Strong’s definition for this Hebrew word is gods in the ordinary sense, but specifically used of the Supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:--angels, exceeding, great, judges, extra mighty. In this definition, there are many gods in the world today but in the beginning, there was only one God, the God, and the only God. In the beginning, there was nothing but God. All things then came from Him. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:3) One point that jumps into my mind is that if you are not worshipping the One true Supreme God, then you are worshiping a god of less power or even a powerless god, and a god created by the creation rather than the Creator. The title then, of my Lord and Master is God, the Supreme God.

What is our Supreme God? In 1 John 4:8 we are told by the Apostle that our God is Love. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” If one does not serve our God, then that one does not serve love. Where there is up there is down, left there is right, light there is darkness, and where there is love there is hate. The one who does not love does not know our God, for our God is love. I spent a very large part of my youth, my life, searching for love. I have always heard that if you do not give love you cannot find love. So I tried to love but still, I never found love. I never found what I thought love was. As I have grown older I have realized that because I equated love in the physical senses what I was really searching for was lust, the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh. Of course, I found plenty of that so much I became sick of love, or more truthfully lust.

In the old song written in the 1980’s by Wanda Mallette “Looking for Love” and sung by Johnny Lee, it hit me that I was looking for love in all the wrong places. If you want to find love then go to the source of love, go to the Supreme God who is love. If you can’t find love without giving love, then give it to Him because if you do or do not He loves you. “We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) If you serve love, then you will receive love, and if you receive love, then you can give love. There is physical love and it is true but too often the world falls into the lust of the flesh and misses the fullness of Love which is spiritual. Our God is Love and our God is a Spirit. Therefore, the fullness of love is spiritual. If love is to be complete, then it must not only appeal to the body and the mind, it must also satisfy the spirit. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)

What is love then, what is the fullness of Love? We find in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians the definition of Love. “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) This is not only a definition of Love, it is a definition of the Supreme God, the Creator of the universe. This is the character of the Supreme God who is a Spirit who loves us because we are His creation. I actually have some of those characteristics but fall way short of having them all. To be honest I may never have then all while here in this world. I find no comfort in that truth but do take some solace in what Paul wrote in Romans. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:25) How I praise my God each day for His Son Jesus the Christ! There have been three people in my life that have come pretty, and beautifully, close to the complete character of God’s Love. My Grandmother Reba Welsh, my father Dr. R.W. Kirkpatrick, and my Pastor Kevin Wynne. I have known many a loving soul and am thankful for each one of them for my admiration and the inspiration they have freely given to me. Being painfully honest I cannot measure up to the Grace of my Grandmother, father, or pastor but oh how thankful I am to my Lord and Savior that someday I shall be as He is.

In the beginning, God, a Spiritual God of Love created the Heavens and the Earth. Before Him, there was nothing but Him and all things since the beginning is of His handiwork and belong to Him. If we can understand that truth, if we can comprehend that He is the Almighty, All Knowing, All Powerful Supreme God, then we find the rest of the Bible to be completely logical and in perfect order, just like His creation, with only one exception. In all of our God’s creation, only man was formed from the dust by the hand of God and only into man did God breathe life. We are created in His image and only man is in rebellion to the will of the Creator. Our God is a loving Father who loves us so much He gave us the freedom to choose to love Him. Do you love Him? If you do, then keep His Word close to your heart.

The world will come to an end and all our earthly treasure will be consumed in fire, but the spirit of man shall live forever, because the Supreme God breathed His image into each one of us. The only question we need to answer today is, do we love Him? If not then just where do you think you will go when you have no room in your Heavenly Father’s House?

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

December 31, 2013