LIVING CREATURES
Genesis 1:24 | “Living Creatures” in Hebrew is hay-yah nephesh which translates literally as living souls. But in Hebrew, “soul” is not something a creature has, it is something a creature is. God’s plan from the beginning was a plan of LIFE. Nothing was ever supposed to have died! God created all the creatures and God blessed them! And He saw that it was good!
THE POWER OF GOD
1 Corinthians 1.18 | How do we interpret the Bible? How do we interpret the world? The universe? From the cross. From the empty tomb. Our “story of everything” begins and continues with Jesus. We read and apply Page One by way of Jesus because The Message (WORD) of the Cross is the POWER OF GOD!
1 Corinthians 1.23 | It is critical to emphasize we do not just talk about Jesus, we proclaim Him as the Crucified One! This means the very One who was acting on Page One is the One Who came to earth to save us! This truth is an utter scandal to those who seek to make themselves righteous (here we use “religious” in the worst sense of the word) and it is utter stupidity to those who seek to define the world for themselves (here we use the word “secular”).
1 Corinthians 1.27 | The adage that, “no one wins an argument,” is helpful here. We should not be surprised when someone is outraged at us. Nor should we be aghast when they think us to be absurd. Our ultimate objective is not to muster more evidence or to refine our logic, our objective is to love our neighbor. This is seemingly foolish. It feels weak. Yes, but it is God’s Design.
1 Corinthians 1.30 | Jesus is our Wisdom who makes us RIGHTEOUS (declared perfect in God’s eyes), HOLY (made utterly different by God’s Spirit) and REDEEMED (impervious to the accusations of the evil one).