the UNIVERSE: where does it all come from? (Genesis 1:1-31)

Christians don’t know all the answers and we turn to Jesus with our questions. We uphold and believe that the bible is truth and complete. Faith is not blind, if something claims to be true then we must be able to see those truths in our world with our own eyes. Looking at Genesis 1 we will learn two lessons about the character of God, the second point consists of 5 sub points. Please don’t buy into everything that you read here, rather test what is said against the Word of God.

God is eternally there

“In the beginning God” (v1) sets the scene as we read the first book of the bible. God’s existence is never brought into question and the bible is all about Him, the bible communicates God to us. God was eternally there and He is not part of His created universe. God was before all things...

God made absolutely everything

The word “created” (v1) basically means (in the original Hebrew text) ‘out of nothing’. This word is used only of God in the bible. If God did not make everything then where did it come from?

a) God is inconceivably immense. Scientists today still cannot measure the extent of the universe. God made it all, we cannot even begin to think how big He is.

b) God is unimaginably powerful. “And God said” (Gen 1: 3,6,9,14,20,24) shows us that God spoke and it was so. When last did you speak something into being or create something from nothing?

c) God is a God of order. On days 1-3 God created the spheres of the world and on days 4-6 He fills the spheres He made, with living things. Read the passage again and see how the days relate.

d) God is wonderfully good. When we look around at the earth don’t think “oh, it’s nice, I guess...” No! We look around and we are confronted with beauty and splendour. The God who made all of this must be good.

e) God seeks a relationship with us. God speaks creation into existence. Everything we see is an expression of God, creation is God speaking to us. God wants us to know Him.

God reveals all this to us in His creation, which is only the beginning of the bible! As we read on we will learn more and more about Him, and ultimately what He has done for us... He sent His Word in human form to the earth so that we could all come into a relationship with Him.

We're Up and Running

Firstly we must apologize to all of you who have been eagerly and patiently waiting for the launch of this service. We could use excuses about how the network and desktop PCs have been giving major issues, not to mention we lost the password for the Blogger site, but the truth is that we have been a bit slack. We are very sorry for the delay and hope that we will be able to keep up to date in the future.

Secondly, the site is up and running and with it we hope to provide a source of sermon summaries, doctrine slots, thoughts and information about what is going on at the church. We really would like your feedback on what we post and as we are all very new to blogging we will happily hear your recommendations and look to make changes where necessary.

This is an exciting launch for Christ Church Umhlanga and we would love as much input as possible.

CCU staff