Lesson 1 - God Creates the World

 

God made the world in six days by the power of His Word. All creation is God’s blessing to us.

 

Opening

 

Prayer: Lord, send your Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds as we study Your Word so that Your Truth is revealed to us.

 

This lesson uses the Lesson 1 Leaflet from the Student Pack. The front cover shows how the artist sees the Garden of Eden, after God created everything but before creating people.  Also have a Bible handy.

 

Read the Apostle’s Creed on the back of the leaflet and think about the first article (sentence) that covers the first actions God performed in creating a world for us to live in. Read the meaning of the first article of the Apostle’s Creed also on the back of the leaflet.

 

Watch and listen to The Work of His Hands video. In the video, Colonel Williams makes two points. First, God condescended (that is became equal to us) by sending His Son.  As the Apostle Paul  said “Christ Jesus … though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Also Colonel Williams said we have no reason to feel insignificant. We have such great value to God that he sent His only Son to pay for our sins.

 

God Speaks

 

Read the Leaflet page that starts with “In the beginning” and try to answer the questions listed.

 

The word Genesis means the beginning, and this book of the Bible describes the beginning of the world. Creation is an act of God the Father. The Spirit of God was also present at the creation.

 

Both the verses from the books of Genesis and John start with the words “In the beginning”. John points out that the Word of God was present at creation since God spoke and the world came into existence. John also says the Word of God became flesh. That is, Jesus is the living Word of God. And He, as the Word was present at the creation.

 

Consider the drawing on page 3 of the Leaflet. This shows the three persons of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three together are called the Holy Trinity, trinity meaning “three in one” and all three coexisted from eternity. This is a mystery and difficult to understand. There are a lot of things in the universe that we as humans cannot understand. But the three persons of God are talked about throughout the Bible, so there is reason to believe in the existence of all three.

 

Although advances in science support the probability that a being with higher intelligence made the universe, science alone cannot prove that God created everything. We accept creation and the existence of the Holy Trinity by faith because they both are described in the Bible and all things are possible with God.

 

Read Genesis 1:1-31. The section of page 3 of the Leaflet that starts with “Let there be” provides a summary of events for the 6 days of creation. Based on the most common meanings of the Hebrew words used to describe creation, each day is literally 24 hours. Another mystery as to how so much can be done in such a short amount of time. But this does speak to the unlimited power of God, something beyond our ability to understand.

 

We Live

 

We include the Holy Trinity with several important beginnings. We begin each worship service with the Invocation – In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Also the Holy Trinity is involved in our Baptism.

 

Baptism is our beginning as a child of God and related to the creation in several ways. The three persons of the Trinity are present in both. In Baptism, we receive the light - forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Our new life in Christ begins with water and the Word of God – the same way the world began.

 

Closing

 

Listen to Thy Strong Word and consider the first verse – God spoke and the darkness was split apart (cleaved) by light (Genesis 1:3). God created the world by the power of His Word alone. He spoke and it came into existence.  

 

In the Bible Exploration Guide, look at the picture on page 3 and read about the dates on page 4.

 

Prayer: God give us faith to believe that You created the earth and the heavens and that You continue to provide us with all we need to sustain life including forgiveness of sins through Your Son, Jesus Christ.