“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:3
Happy New Year friends! In beginning a new year, I have begun again to read through the Bible. It’s always an important part of the new year to be reminded that God is our Creator. It’s important to be reminded in the midst of busy days, traffic, demanding job situations, crying kids, and many other competing priorities – that God created this world and continues to uphold it by His power (Colossians 1:16-17). This reality must not be ignored by us, and should dramatically shape our priorities:
- God created us for relationship. God does not need anything from us, but created us for His own pleasure and glory. He created us in His image – meaning that we share enough similarities with God that we can have a real and personal relationship with Him, while at the same time, He is beyond us in ways we can never fully understand.
- God has revealed Himself to us in the Bible for the purpose of right relationship. I hope you will make it a priority this year to constantly study the Bible, but that your study of the Bible will be for the purpose of gaining a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We must have truth for authentic relationships. We can never have a meaningful relationship with anyone that we don’t know truly, but knowledge does not equal relationship. I know much about George Washington through reading about his life, but I do not have a relationship with him. God created this world, you personally, and has disclosed Himself to us and recorded that disclosure in the Bible – so that we might know Him personally.
- God created a structure of time for us to live within: 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 365 days in a year, a set number of years for your life. God is infinite and unbound by time. We, by design, are bound by time. God did not create our lives to be bound by time so that we might frantically fill it with every possible event. God created us to need sleep, Sabbath rest (one day in seven), and relaxation in the midst of regular hard work. As you pursue the work God has for you this year, be careful to remember the unhurried life of Jesus. He accomplished all of the Lord’s will – in an unhurried, simple, relationally rich life. He cut out everything that was not necessary. I encourage you to remember that if you cannot fit your planned activities into the time God has given you – then your life choices have gone beyond God’s design for your life and something needs to change.
This year, let us together remember that God is our Creator, and let us focus on knowing Jesus Christ and those around us with much love and authenticity – by re-structuring our lives to live within the good boundaries God has set for us.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Vic