To Adam [God] said…Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” (Genesis 3:17-19a)
Thorns & Thistles
Apr 18, 2018
After a particularly frustrating day at the office, it can be tempting to believe that work itself is a curse—a “necessary evil” and consequence of living in a fallen world. But that’s not at all what Scripture teaches.
As we’ve seen over the past two days, God himself worked, thus giving great dignity to our work today. Then, he passed the baton of creation to us to work as his image-bearers to “fill the earth.” Genesis 1 and 2 show us that work is inherently dignified and good. Work existed prior to the Fall and thus, work was designed to be worship.
But—and this is a big but—sin messed...
What God Did NOT Create “In The Beginning”
Apr 17, 2018
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:27-28a)
What God created in the first six days is remarkable. But what’s equally remarkable is what he did not create.
He created animals, but he didn’t give them names. He created land, but he didn’t build roads. He created stars, but he didn’t invent the telescope.
After working for six days, God left the earth largely undeveloped and uncultivated. He created a blank canvas and then invited us to join him in filling it.
That’s what today’s passage is all about. Before God rested on the seventh day, he put a succession plan in place, calling us to create in his image—to “fill the earth and subdue it.” As pastor Timothy Keller points out, this is a call for...
Looking for a God at Work
Apr 16, 2018
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3)
In the Church today, we talk a lot about how God is loving, holy, omnipresent, all-powerful, faithful, just, and true. But we rarely, if ever, talk about the fact that we worship a God who works.
And yet, that is the very first thing God reveals about himself in Scripture. In the beginning, God created. In the beginning, God was productive. In the beginning, God worked.
In the first pages of Genesis, we see God working with his words (see Genesis 1) and his hands (see Genesis 2:7-9). We see him joyfully engaged in “the work of creating” (Genesis 2:3). It’s significant to note that the Hebrew word mlkh, which we...
