Last observation, day one God separated light and darkness and day four he filled the heavens with light to govern. Where do we see Jesus separate light and darkness? Where do we see him separate rule?With a word, he took care of darkness forever and stepped into ultimate rule. “It is finished.” And he breathed his last breath.If you want to jot down a few passages where we see God’s victory ove...

  Remember, this week we are looking at God’s forming and filling of creation and then how do we see that through the lens of Jesus?Day two was separating the waters, water and sky and day five was filling with sea creatures and birds.Mark 4:35-41- 35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as ...

  I want to go back the question I raised last week. Do we see Jesus do something similar in his life, that we see at creation?Obviously, if I’m asking the question, it is a yes. I want to show you three stories where we see Jesus, with a word speak into the chaos of the wilderness, water, and darkness and bring order.I’m going to go backwards in the days of creation and Jesus’ life. Day three and...

  Read Genesis 1:20-23- 20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and ...

  If you have not had a chance to listen to the message on April 19th or 26th, I encourage you to go back and take a listen. This all builds on each other.My intention last week, wasn’t to land on one specific way creation took place, but to throw out the challenge to all opinions of creation because I believe the declaration of the creation story, of Genesis 1 and 2 isn’t about the HOW of creatio...

  The Psalmist does a beautiful job of summarizing what we’ve talked about. I share it because this is how the ancients would have understood the creation story. Psalm 33:6-9- 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the p...

  We mentioned on Tuesday about how Jesus’ name may not be on the pages of Genesis, but because God is revealed in Genesis, we can affirm that Jesus was as well. Take a moment and read John 1:1-5, 9- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made....

  Let’s read Genesis 1:1-13. What do you notice, what gets your attention? What is created on each day? How is it created? What do you notice about the repetition of words?Genesis 1:1-13- 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 ...

  Let’s read Genesis 1:1-13. What do you notice, what gets your attention? What is created on each day? How is it created? What do you notice about the repetition of words?Genesis 1:1-13- 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 ...

  Last week we introduced our new series on Genesis- back to the beginning, seeing how God establishes life through creation, fall, redemption and repeat. This week we are kicking off the specific verses, going from Genesis 1 to Genesis 50.If you are familiar with Genesis 1 or remember how it started from last week, this is what we read: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Whic...

  Genesis, origins, the beginning is the story of God, not just history, and it’s not just their story, the origins of Israel, it’s our story. John Walton says, “It expresses God’s love for the people he created and his intention to bless them in spite of rebellion and sin. The picture of love, mercy, and compassion thus portrayed by means of blessing stands in stark contrast to the self-protectio...

  Notice how God steps into the life of Abram, eventually Abraham and how he starts anew with similar promises of Creation.Read Genesis 12:1-3- The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless th...

  The talking snake slithers onto the scene and starts up a deceiving conversation with Eve and then Adam.Read Genesis 3:6-11- 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and ...

  The purpose of Genesis is to remember the beginning of who God is and his activity- creation, fall, redemption, repeat. We see this in Genesis, as the micro-story, but we also see this throughout the Bible. In Genesis we will see it through different words or key ideas; life, blessing (creation), failure (fall), redemption, and covenant (new relationship or commitment).What I want to do for the ...

  We are kicking off our new series: Genesis- Back to the Beginning.For those of you who were with us when we went through Mark, this will be similar. Don’t worry, it won’t be as long . But what I want to invite you to do is take your time through Genesis. Even if you have another reading plan, go ahead and add this to the list. We are going to take our time going through Genesis and today, I hope...

Because of his great love, our lives should look different. When Jesus spent the last night with his disciples, he washed their feet before the Passover meal and before everythingwent “amuck”, even though it was for our good. Jesus gives us a new command in John 17. Notice how Peter Briscoe shares it,“Man-made religion and legalism would soon be nullified by the sacrificial death of Jesus “because...

The spoken word that was shared on Sunday and then again with the Daily Faith Challenge on Monday was written by our very own Holly Vogel and read by Josh and Emilie Dahm.We started and ended the reading with the most popular verse in all of Scripture. John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.For Go...

Let’s take a brief look at Luke’s account of the resurrection. Luke also wrote the book of Acts. Which based upon word count, Luke wrote more in the NT than any other author. I know Paul wrote more books, Luke just wrote longer books. I share that because Luke gives us great detail with all that he experiences.Luke 24:1-8- On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the...

  This week is post Easter week. Yesterday you hopefully were able to experience the writing and reflections of Holly Vogel, our Communications Director. She did a fantastic job of capturing the God’s story and our story.Today, I want to go after a little bit different perspective, because I think when we spend time around Easter, no matter our faith journey, I think we can struggle through a lot ...

  Yesterday was an incredible time reflecting on Jesus - His coming, His death, His resurrection, and His great love. Let us continue in that reflection this morning, so that the significance of celebrating Jesus’ resurrection is not limited to one day a year, but a joy and gratitude we can live in often.A poem called “The Blood That Built a Bridge” or “The Great Love” was shared yesterday and gav...