SATURDAY, August 16th, 2008

Thanks for coming last night teenagers! I enjoyed our time together whether you liked the movie or not... some of us are easy to please, others... well you get the picture :) I am thankful that each of you came on such short notice!

I am really thankful that we finished the book of Jonah yesterday! I think that was one of my favorite book studies so far.

Well after much thought and debate I have decided on what we will be studying for the next book. If this is not the book that you voted on, I appologize, but after much consideration I figured that we might as well start here. It is all instpired, so whether you voted for Genesis, Job, Proverbs, or Numbers... We need to read it all! So I figured out which book would help us understand how everthing else that we read in the future fits together and I made a decision. One thing that I need to tell you, I realized that if we only do 10 verses a day then we will be reading this book for like four months... So We are going to up the reading a little bit. We will generally read one chapter a day now, which would equal an average of about 30 verses a day. I know that is a little more than normal, just know that I do not expect a synopsis of every verse. Just an application to your life, or a lesson that you personally can work on through the passage that we read.


So... Drumroll Please...............................................


Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”
21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

What a great reminder of our creator... It is easy to go day after day and forget, or not remember, our creator. When was the last time you looked at a blade of grass or a butterfly and remembered... WOW! God created that from nothing!! It is not like He had a book up in Heaven that said... If you want to make a butterfly this is what you do. Our creator just thought it into existence and then boom, He created it. He created waterfalls, Giant Trees, Beaches, Sunsets, Full Moons, Stary Nights, Sunflowers, Rainbows, Chocolate Chip Cookies... ok, well He created the stuff that makes them!! :) But seriously we have an incredible God, a master creator, and the most wonderful part about the study of this creator is what He would consider His Masterpiece... You and Me!

We see on the sixth day that God made Man in His own image. I love how it says "Our" Image. God made us in "their" image: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit... Have you ever heard someone sayd man has a "Body, Soul, and Spirit"...? Well that is how we are created in the lokeness of God. We have our Body, just like Christ, we have our spirit, just like the Holy spirit, and we have our mind, the control center of our life, just like God the Father.

Pretty Amazing Huh! There is even a lot of cool things to learn in the book of Genesis and I am excited about doing a daily study through this book with you! Stay faithful!!

By the way: You sould memorize this:

Day One: Day and Night
Day Two: The Firmament: Space
Day Three: The Land, Grass, Herbs, and Trees
Day Four: Sun, Moon, Stars
Day Five: The Birds and Fishes
Day Six: Land Animals and Man

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