A Portrait Of God

 God is vitally concerned about all His creation and especially you and me. He’s concerned about war, famine, disease and suffering. HE IS IN CONTROL OF THE AFFAIRS OF MAN.

 Why doesn’t God intervene? At times He does but in accordance to His will not ours. He does not intervene in many cases because He wants us to have the ability to choose. We forfeit that right if God does everything for us.

6. GOD IS GREAT

 God is the great God whose light outshines all others.

GENESIS

A PORTRAIT OF GOD

TEXT: Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Quickly, God was faced with a class action suit for failure to file an environmental impact statement. God was granted a temporary permit for the project, but was stymied with the “cease and desist” order for the earthly part. Then God said, "Let there be light!"

Immediately, the officials demanded to know how the light would be made. Would there be strip mining? What about thermal pollution? God explained that the light would come from a large ball of fire. God was granted provisional permission to make light, assuming that no smoke would result from the ball of fire, and that he would obtain a building permit and to conserve energy, He would have the light out half the time. God agreed and offered to call the light "Day" and the darkness "Night". The officials replied that they were not interested in semantics. God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plant yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit." The EPA agreed, so long as only native seed was used. Then God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth." The officials pointed out that this would require approval from the Department of Game coordinated with the Heavenly Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. Everything was okay until God said the project would be completed in six days. The officials said it would take at least two hundred days to review the applications and the impact statement. After that there would be a public hearing. Then there would be ten to twelve months before...At this point, God created Hell.

Aren’t you glad creation didn’t happen that way?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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. 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. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis is called the Book of Beginnings. It sets forth the beginnings of the world, of life, of domestic relationships, of institutions, of the moral order, of sin and its consequences, God plan of redemption, of nations, and God’s choosing of His people, Israel. Genesis spans a greater range of time than any other book in the Bible. It extends from the beginning of the world to the death on Joseph in Egypt. There are three distinct periods of time: Time before the Great Flood, From the Flood to the call of Abraham, and the rise of the Patriarchs or Fathers of the nation of Israel.