For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20, NIV 1984)
It took me some time to work up the courage, a bit like weighing the classic risk-reward scenario on a reachable but treacherous par-5. Yet the familiarity of the group—and the prodding of the Lord—pushed me to do it. With one of our local Links Fellowships I’ve jumped into the opening chapters of Genesis.
There’s biblical support for not stirring up controversies (Titus 3:9), and when you’ve had so much civil discussion among men and women from a variety of denominational backgrounds, you don’t want to insert just any difficult topic into the mix. Oh, the Bible will take us to challenging places as we work our way through its pages, but it’s not normally in the mix of Christian character to pick a fight.
So how are we getting it done in our Fellowship? Chiefly this: we’re keeping our eyes on the who, rather than on the how.
Actually, this is the same thing we’ve been doing in every other passage we’ve studied during our nearly three years together. Last fall, we moved through Hebrews, looking back from the New into the Old. So it made sense to pick up in Genesis, to start from the Old and see how it points to the New. After all, the tried adage remains true: “In the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed; in the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.”
We’ve called our study this: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Genesis.” In other words, our goal is to see God. I can’t imagine a better way to navigate these waters.
When we focus on the how, it isn’t long before we’re staring each other down. “How can you believe such a thing?” we say, sometimes out loud and often in our minds. But when we focus on the who, the wonder of it all lands us in the perfect place. We look at what has been made, and we begin to understand what the creation was intended to provoke us to understand: who God is and how amazing his power and his divinity are!
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Jeff Hopper
January 24, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.