Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Do you honestly believe that?
O.K. first things first, I understand that you may or may not believe that God is in fact real. If you don’t, I challenge you to read through that book called the bible, then sit back and watch the world. If you want to, prove it wrong. Just read it and see if the things that it describes have, and are, actually happening. Look around and see if there seems to be evil and good in the world. If you see it, you could ask yourself; why do good and evil exist? Where do they come from? If you want a little modern evidence to back up some of the stories try this;
A little side note about the men in this video. I met them years ago in Colorado Springs where Bob Cornuke was living at the time. I don't know if he is still in the same place or not but let me say what happened when I met these two. I happened to be delivering a hot tub to Mr. Cornuke one day and his friend Larry asked if I knew who Bob was. I said no, to which, Larry said he was a real life Indiana Jones. When we were done, they gave me a video to watch. I thought OK, so what is a real life Indiana Jones? I took the video home and stuck it in a drawer (wish I hadn't) and it sat there for a long time. One day I pulled it out and watched it.
Bob asked a question one day. Can you take the bible and use it just as it is and find the things that it talks about in Genesis. They set out to see if the bible could prove itself true. Would they really be able to verify those things?
If you decide to watch this, do it without hate and malice. Just watch it and see what they uncovered. If you want to send me comments with profanity and railings, don't. I will block your emails for the future. If you want to leave comments, even ones disagreeing, that's OK, just do it in a respectful way.
No matter what you learn in life, the only way to learn is by asking questions. You can either meander your way through this life, even with a so called purpose, and miss the most important question of all. Who am I? That in turn begs another question; What am I here for? How about this; Is there more? The ONLY people that will find the answers to those questions are the ones who ask and genuinely want an answer. If you don't care, then it won't matter until later.
Start with Genesis 1:1 and read the account of creation. Just start with the first 3 chapters. See if it makes sense. After that read the book of John in the New Testament. If you still wonder about it all, try reading a book called "Evidence that demands a verdict" by Josh McDowel or "The case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. Have you ever thought that there has to be more to this life? More than just getting up every day, going to work, coming home, going to bed and then doing it all over again tomorrow? What if there really is something more going on? What if it's not "all about us?"
Now for those who say they believe that God is real - have you ever considered that this very first verse of the bible has more significance for us than we might think? Let me explain why. If you say yes, that you believe God did in fact create the heavens and the earth, how strongly do you believe it? You have to be settled on this issue a hundred percent and there’s a reason why.
Think of it like this; in the most amazing display of power and creativity ever, God made the heavens and the earth. In the most precious commitment to relationship ever, God created man. In the most selfless act of love ever witnessed by heaven or earth, Jesus sacrificed himself to get us back. Don’t you think that’s worth something?
God has given us the bible. He communicates with us through it. If you are indeed settled on the fact that God did create all of this, then it stands to reason that his communication with us through his word is something we should not take lightly or ignore.
The degree of importance and belief that we place on that event will determine our entire view of the bible. If we find little significance in him as the creator, then we probably won’t find much use in getting to know him or even place much importance on doing what he asks.
If we place a lot of significance and importance on the fact that he created the heavens and the earth, then I think we probably give a lot of credence to everything he says in his word.
I have met people who say “sure I believe that there is something bigger going on here”, or “yeah, I believe in God”. Some even go so far as to say that they believe God created the heavens and earth and that Jesus died for our sins, and then that’s it. They have no relationship with him. Well here I go, I’m going to go out on a limb and it’s partly why I said you need to be settled on the issue.
If we believe that this awesome, powerful, magnificent God who has the power to create worlds, galaxies and people, who can make all of us and everything evaporate with just a whisper, shouldn’t we take him seriously?
O.K. down to the practical, Jesus said if we love him, obey his commandments (John 14:15) If we don’t place much importance on what God did, starting with the very beginning, then we won’t place any importance on actually obeying him.
So, flip that statement around. He could have said “if you don’t obey my commandments then you really don’t love me”. As you get further into the bible and get to the scriptures that require real effort on your part, then you will say "no" to doing those things because you don’t believe who He is or what He did are significant enough to warrant real effort on your part.
For all of us, when we choose to do the opposite of what we know He is asking, because it might be too difficult or make us uncomfortable, we are simply telling Him no. We are saying that - Him being the amazing creator, the one who loves us more than anyone, the one who died a horrifying death for us, just simply isn’t enough for us to really believe that we should listen to Him or do that hard thing that is facing us. The bible says in James 4:17 "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin".
That’s when we must remind ourselves that we have already settled that issue and tell ourselves again; “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” and since he is great and powerful enough to do that, I believe that what he says matters, so I am going to lean on him and do what he asks of me.
So I ask again, do you believe that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”? If you really do, then congratulations, you believe that the rest of the bible is important and will actually do something about it. May God bless you greatly in your efforts to imitate Christ!