After the first six days of creation, the earth was still largely empty. As I say in my new children’s book, The Creator in You, “while in six days God created a lot, there are so many things that He simply did not— like bridges and baseballs, sandcastles and s’mores. God asked us to create and fill the planet with more.”
What’s that gold doing in Eden?
May 02, 2022
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule…God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:26, 28)
That’s what we see in today’s passage. God never intended for Eden to remain a garden. He commissioned human beings to “rule” over it. To “fill the earth and subdue it.” To work the garden and turn it into something far more.
There’s a beautiful detail in the second chapter of Scripture that helps make this clear. Genesis 2:10-12 says, “Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams. Th...
You are called to Someone before something
Apr 25, 2022
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)
As we’ve seen over the past two weeks, we worship a God who works! And next week, we’ll see that God has created us to work in partnership with him.Â
But before we look too closely at God’s call for us to create, we need to remember this: Before God calls us to do a single thing, he calls us to be his child. 1 John 3:1 says, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
Before we were given a task, we were given an identity—children created “in the image of God” (see Genesis 1:27)—a scene wonderfully reimagined by Jonathan David, the illustrator of The Creator in You.
And there was clearly a relationship between God and human beings before he put them to work in the Garden of Eden. There was love and acceptance before they did a single thing.Â
This unconditional ...
Hacks and rip-off artists
Apr 18, 2022
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9)
Last week, we worshiped God for the fact that he works. But now we must make one thing clear: God works in ways that are totally unlike the way you and I work today.
We worship the God who simply “calls into being things that were not” (Romans 4:17). As I say in my children’s book, The Creator in You, “With just a few words, He made creatures appear, like polar bears, penguins, alpacas, and deer.”
My kids love pretending to create animals and magical snow with their words, but so far, their play hasn’t turned into reality. You know why? Because only God can create out of nothing (see Genesis 1:24-25)! As Jen Wilkin says, “We are all hacks...
3 reasons why it matters that God works
Apr 11, 2022
Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (John 5:17)
I begin my new children’s book by saying, “In the very beginning, a long time ago, God created the world so that we would all know that He Himself is a working God, though you might think that sounds just a little bit odd.”
Why is it odd to think of God “working”? After all, Jesus worked and made it clear that the “Father is always at his work to this very day” (see John 5:17).Â
I think it sounds odd because we rarely if ever preach or sing about God’s working character. We talk so much about God’s love, holiness, and mercy, that we forget that the first thing he wanted us to know about him is that he is a God who creates—a God who makes things (see Genesis 1:1)!
This is unique in the history of world religions. Every other origin story says the gods created human beings to work and serve the gods. Only the Bible says that God himself worked to serve us.
The First Commission, the call to create
Apr 04, 2022
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)
What God created “in the beginning” is remarkable. But what’s equally remarkable is what he did not create.Â
He created animals but he didn’t give them names. He created the ocean but he didn’t build a boat. He created stars but he didn’t make a telescope for others to marvel at his glory. Of course, God could have created those things. But instead, he chose to invite us to do that work with him.Â
Today’s passage helps us see this beautiful truth. Before God put humankind in the Garden to “work it and take care of it,” it says that “no shrub had yet appeared on the earth…for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground” (Genesis 2:5).
God had no intention of working alone. He always intended for you and I to “work the ground”—to take the blank canvas he laid out “in the beginning” and fill it up. We see this explicitly in Genesis 1:27-28 ...
The “purposeless” beauty of God’s work
Mar 28, 2022
The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)
Spain’s largest church, La Sagrada Familia, has been under construction for more than 135 years. Why? Because more than a century ago, the church’s architect, Antoni Gaudi, laid out intricate plans to create a house of worship that would be senselessly, gratuitously, over-the-top beautiful.Â
Today, annual construction on the church costs roughly $60 million dollars—a price tag that has drawn sharp criticism from many who don’t see the purpose of such lavish art. If Gaudi were alive today, I bet he’d point his critics to today’s passage to remind us that the God his church worships values beauty in and of itself.
Think about it: The trees of Eden didn’t need to be beautiful. They were “good for food.” Shouldn’t that have been enough? Evidently not, because “in ...
Sabbath as a license for laziness?
Mar 21, 2022
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. (Genesis 2:1-2)
It feels like there’s been a resurgence of Christians committing to rest in general and Sabbath specifically in recent years. As I wrote about last week, I’m all for this! But my fear is that we’ll swing the proverbial pendulum too far in the other direction, with some Christians taking the Biblical command to rest as a license for laziness.
Thankfully, God hasn’t left us in the dark regarding the ideal balance between work and rest. He shows us in today’s passage where it says he worked six days and rested one. Talk about imbalance! God worked wholeheartedly, and then he commanded us to mimic his rhythm: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:9-10).
This theme of hard work continues through the New Testament w...
Why God paced himself “in the beginning”
Mar 14, 2022
God set [the lights and stars] in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” (Genesis 1:17-20)
God could have created everything in a single day. But instead, he paced himself, spreading the initial work of creation over six “days.”
Take today’s passage as an example. On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon, and stars. Could he have also created “living creatures” that same day? Of course! But he chose not to. After finishing the work of creating the heavenly lights, God called it a day. He rested. And then of course, on the seventh day, he did no work at all, establishing for the first time the idea of Sabbath (see Genesis 2:1-3).
God didn’t need to rest on the Sabbath. And he certainly had no ...
If it’s all going to “burn up,” why are you going to work today?
Mar 07, 2022
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12)
Today’s passage is just one example of a theme we see throughout Genesis 1: God calling the material world “good.” Why is this important? Because it helps us debunk the lie that “spiritual work” is more important to God than work that is more concrete and earthbound.Â
Let me trace the logic here. Many Christians have grown up believing a misinterpretation of 2 Peter 3:10 which says the earth will be “destroyed by fire” in the end. If we take that literally, then we must assume that our ultimate existence will be disembodied souls floating on heavenly clouds for all eternity. And if that’s the case, the only thing that matters i...
Before you ask “What’s next?” ask this question
Feb 28, 2022
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:3-4)
I finished writing my last book on a Friday and started writing the next one the following Monday. I took almost no time to stop, see, and appreciate the goodness of what I had finished before moving on to the next thing. What a contrast to the way we see God working in today’s passage.Â
In the first chapter of Genesis, we are told seven times that God “saw that [his work] was good.” The language here suggests more than just a passing glance. You can envision God taking a step back, breathing deeply, and exhaling in delight as he gazed and marveled at the good work of his hands. He didn’t rush on to the next thing. He took the time to see and delight in what he had already made.
Again, what a contrast to the way we work today. You and I are always looking towards the next thing—the next deal, the next promotion, the next project, the...
