Lesson 1

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

1. Only God can create something out of nothing, Hebrew: Bara. Evolutionists have to start with something.

2. The first verse is an acorn summary of all to follow.

3. The first verse begins with God the worker, not His holiness or love. Doesn’t this suggest we are here to work? Perhaps those who hate to work are inspired by the opposite of God, i.e., satan.

Genesis 1:2 – “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.”

4. Tohu . . . bohn “without form and void,” many lives are without order and meaning.

5. Since God can bring order out of inanimate objects, He can do the same to people made in His image (1:26-27).

6. Life without order and meaning lives in darkness, not knowing what to do, where to go, how to get there and when to respond.

7. Just as the Holy Spirit brought laws and principles to creation, He can give you life, purpose and direction.

Genesis 1:3-4 – “Then God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”

8. God can turn your darkness into light. “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

9. God wants to bring order out of chaos. To be a disciple of Christ, we must be disciplined. Too many believers are in a mess of their own making.

10. Since God divided light from darkness, we must separate ourselves from the works of darkness.

Genesis 1:14-18 – “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; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so. 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. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 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.”

11. No time before creation, only emptiness. God can turn our empty years into meaningful seasons. We are “called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

12. Those who understand that God has a purpose for them, will make the best use of their time.

Genesis 1:20-22 – “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.’ 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. And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’”

13. God turns emptiness into fullness. Our life is empty until God fills it with abundance. The more you obey God, the more He will fill your life with abundant joy, purpose, wisdom, and happiness.

14. Those who have a small meaningless world need God’s creative work. “I come that they might have . . . life more abundantly” (John 10:10).

15. God created the earth with “reproducing producers,” when He said, “After His kind” (vs. 11-12, 21, 24-25). Therefore (a) God made us to work. “Let (man) have dominion” (1:26); (b) We are made to eat. “I have given you every herb bearing seed . . . for food” (1:29); (c) To protect. “To dress and keep (the garden)” (2:15); and (d) every living thing will reproduce, so should we.

Genesis 1:26-27 – “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.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

16. God created man and woman, so it’s a relational world. We learn from one another, help one another, rescue one another, protect one another, and comfort one another.

17. God created the world for people. Vegetable and animals serve people not the reverse. “I (God) have given them (animals) to you for food” (Gen. 4:3, LB).