Wednesday, August 15, 2018

EmmDev 2018-08-15 [Celebrating Creation] Ex Nihilo

Celebrating Creation

Ex Nihilo

Here in the Southern Hemisphere, Spring is beginning to unfold (the photo is of some cabbage plants in my garden) and so I thought we could spend a bit of time on the doctrine of Creation. We'll look at the accounts of creation, some of the principles of creation, what creation teaches us and what our responsibilities around creation are. (Some of this material is re-worked from a series I did on Genesis 1 & 2 five years ago, but I'll be digging quite a bit deeper.)
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The Hebrew word that is used for "created" is "bara". The scholars tell us that this implies creation out of nothing. When we take clay and make a pot we merely transforming while God created.

It is significant that God created "Ex Nihilo" (out of nothing). It makes it clear that EVERYTHING comes from Him. Some would go as far as saying that if God was all there was, then He made space in Himself to create.

This speaks of God's greatness and uniqueness.

The humorous story is told that some scientists found a way to create life...
They triumphantly called a meeting with God and said:
"Well God, we're now able to create life - we don't need you anymore"
God answered: "Oh really? Show me..."
So the scientists got their test tubes and particle accelerators ready and said "OK so we start with some dirt and we put it into..."
And God interrupted and said: "Uh uh - you make your own dirt...!"

At first there was nothing but God, and then He created - out of nothing.

Take some time today to drink in the beauty of creation and recognise that all this majesty and beauty began in the mind of God and then He called it into being out of nothing. We, us, the world, and the cosmos, are the imagination of God become reality! He thought of the bonds between protons in the atom and poured the power in to make it possible. He designed quarks and He pictured the majesty of the cosmic nebula. He imagined a mother's love, the joy of laughter and the beauty of music and art - all squeezed into a fragile human soul. He didn't pick from a catalogue or work from a recipe. He imagined all of this and then made it happen!

What a great and awesome God!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.       (Genesis1:1-5)