In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Monday, November 14

Time Alone With God Daily Devotional
Written by Pastor Phil Stout JAXNAZ Church

Read: Genesis 1:26-27

New International Version (NIV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Start

Consider: This week it would be good to read the entire opening chapter of the Bible. But if you do, read it as it was intended to be read. Don’t read it for facts and timetables. Don’t read it for data. Read it for celebration.

The first chapter of Genesis is not a text book. It is a poem. I like to call it the “Song of Creation.” In its original language, it bears the marks of Hebrew poetry. This is a poem, a song, a story that God’s people shared and passed down from generation to generation. It reveals the heart of God and the priorities of God. If we look for the wrong things, if we try to use it to argue about the age of the earth or the chronology of creation, we miss the whole point. We miss the beauty and wonder of God’s creativity.

We typically look at the pinnacle of creation as the formation of man and woman. There is a reason for that. It is not because we are superior physically. We are created from the same “dust” (elements) as the rest of creation (2:7). We are different because the Imago Dei—“the image of God”—defines who we are (1:27).

The writer returns to this truth in the following chapter, telling us that God breathed into us “the breath of life” (2:7). He’s not describing oxygen, for the animals partake in that. In the original languages of our scriptures, the word for “breath” and the word for “spirit” are the same. The “breath of life” is the Spirit of God which uniquely resides in that portion of creation that is made in the image of its Creator. We were made for fellowship, intimacy and unity with our Creator.

Pray: Take some time to step back today and consider your place in creation. Take some deep breaths to remind yourself of the “breath of life”—the “image of God”—that formed you and continues to form you. Thank God that he has created you with the capacity to know him, interact with him and love him.