God called… Gen. 1:5

“God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” (Genesis 1:5)

Again, God speaks. This time the word used has the meaning of call as in to proclaim. By naming the light and the darkness, God further separates them. In the same act He gives meaning to the light and darkness.

Next we find the controversial part of this verse that some argue is not strictly one day. There are several reasons we can refute this view point. First, the word for day is clarified by evening and morning, which is a single day. Second, Genesis 2:2 says “by the seventh day”, telling us of seven days that comprised the completion of creation. Third, throughout the Bible the days of creation are treated only as twenty-four hour periods. Lastly, what would you say to God if He asked you to justify your view of the time period of creation? We can choose to trust God’s word or deny it (Psalm 119:42 or Romans 1:21).

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas my friends. I thought I’d greet any potential readers on this fine Christmas day.

A thought came to me yesterday while ice skating. My girlfriend told me it was supposed to rain today. If God allows rain, it is good. God’s will now is just like the passages from Genesis I have been going over. What God does is good simply because God does it, thus putting His impression on His work. The same is true of His grace. Psalm 145:17 says that He is gracious (or kind) in all His ways.

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy the Lord’s good and gracious work.

Santa as a teacher

When I was growing up I was fully aware of Santa. I received gifts from him. I left notes for him. I set out cookies for him and carrots for Rudolf. It was all very fascinating.

My girl-friend did not have the same experience. When she asked me to defend my parents’ perpetuation of Santa I fell back on a million similar things in books and videos etc. It did get me thinking though.

I began to think about what Santa taught me. Over eight or ten years he must have taught me something. A basic premiss is his song – “You better not pout, you better not cry… He knows when you are bad or good so be good for goodness sake”.

He taught me to be good. Why? For goodness sake. With a little tweaking I may have seen that it was for God’s sake, no problem. But why should I refrain from bad and do good? So I would get Christmas presents, of course.

There are two ways to look at this.
One:
With Santa we try not to do bad and try to do good. It’s good enough, so Santa gives us a new Nintendo 360. Our teaching from Santa teaches us just as the Old Testament does. We receive eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ. This is a gift of infinite value. We cannot refrain from bad and do good to the extent that is required by the one giving us the gift, our perfect heavenly Father. Therefore, we must give up our effort to earn the infinite gift of God. Instead, we have to accept that Jesus lived sinlessly (refrained from bad) and in complete righteousness (did good) as well as dying for our sins (paying the cost for our gift) so that we could live forever with Him. Then in gratitude for God’s gift we obey Him.
Two:
Exactly the opposite, Santa teaches that being good enough has a pay-off. That pay-off can be earned by our hard work. He would then end up teaching a salvation by works, which is damning.

I pray we look more closely at what we teach at this time of year. You will be the one who teaches your children about Santa and his message. Is that message the gospel or a lesson on where life without the gospel will leave you?

A little about this site

The first comment I received was from a good friend. It reminded me that I should really introduce myself for any new people that come to the site as well as the site’s purpose.

My name is Joshua. I live in Rhode Island. I’m not going to say exactly where but it is quite a small state. If you are looking to help then I’d be glad to have comments on the posts here. If you have the gift of sharing your faith, encouraging, teaching or the like then maybe I can add you as a user to create posts of your own.

The purpose of this site is the glorification of Jesus Christ and by Him, the One Living God. I hope to eventually have three different main categories.
First, “Passages” that will explore a verse or section of Scripture to properly interpret it (and perhaps apply it but that should be left mostly to the reader).
Second, “Topic” that will evaluate subject matter in light of the Bible’s teaching (no “our culture/society/etc. is SO messed up” type stuff – complaining/grumbling is out, Philippians 2:14-15 NIV, NASB).
Third, “Inspiration” that will offer encouragement or insight as we keep the cross in mind during our daily walk.

And again, feel free to comment on the posts and discussions.

God saw… Gen. 1:4

“God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:4, NASB)

First, we observe that God sees or observes the light He has created. He observes that the light is good. Much like a painting, the nature or character of the artist can be seen in the creation. God, by creating light, has left the imprint of His nature upon it – it is good. The rest of creation is still in need of work. It has not yet been declared good.

God then separates light and darkness. As with much of Scripture the “how?” question is not answered. It was most likely with His command (see verse 3). We do not know what creation would be like if God had not separated light from darkness. Due to this separation though, we gain many things. It begins the sense of seasons or times. This will prove to be very important as the rest of creation comes into being. Also, we have what becomes a great analogy throughout Scripture of good and evil (2 Corinthians 6:14).