God's Will for Man (The Point, Ep. 2)

In Episode 2 of The Point radio and podcast, I discuss how God created man in a special way, and the purpose God gave man. God handcrafted man, "formed" man, like a potter sculpts his creation. After forming us, and creating us in His image, God breathed into us the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

God gave us a special consciousness and an eternal spirit that was meant to mimic His creativity, intelligence and love. We were created to worship Him by choice, and to create and cultivate. We were created to fellowship with Him, and each other. Do we live up to that purpose?

Check out The Point, posted above, for a more in-depth study.

Newly Revamped "The Point" Launched On-Air and Online

After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to take "The Point," my theological radio show on News/Talk 102.3 KXYL, to the next level. I have produced a new intro and outro to the show, new theme music, and now I have added podcasting to the mix. From this point forward, all episodes of "The Point" will be made available on demand, and online.

In this first new episode, I begin a "through the Bible" series. I have attempted this many times in the past, and have yet to finish. Life and ministry tend to happen. All that notwithstanding, here goes another round.

Episode 1 deals with the pre-existence of God, His creation of the world, His authority over all creation, and His special love for mankind. I hope you enjoy.

The Journey: Genesis 2:7 - God Made Man Different

Genesis 2:7 says "The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Genesis 2:4-6 recount various aspects of the creation and how things functioned before man was created. Verse 7 then explains how man was created differently from the rest of creation. Instead of speaking man into existence, God formed man from the dust of the ground... meaning He actually molded man... hand-crafted him to be what God wanted him to be.

Ephesians 2:10 speaks to this when it says "For we are His workmanship...." Workmanship means craftsmanship. If you want to see the craftsmanship of God, look in the mirror. There are parts of the human body that science cannot replicate. Despite the advances in computer technology, man cannot create a brain like God gave him.

To put it another way, God made us specially.

Not only did God handcraft us, He gave us a living soul. When Genesis 2:7 says that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life... it is not saying that God gave man mouth to mouth, it is saying that God gave man a living soul.

The Bible teaches that man is both flesh and spirit. The flesh is temporary, but the spirit (or the soul) lives forever. When it comes to salvation, we are not trying to save the life of the soul as much as we are trying to secure the eternal destination of the soul.

If a sinner dies without knowing Jesus Christ as his personal savior, his soul doesn't die. His soul spends eternity in Hell suffering the wrath of God.

However, if a sinner repents and trusts Jesus Christ as His savior, He looks forward to spending an eternity in Heaven with the Lord.

God handcrafted man, gave him life, and also gave him purpose. Genesis 2:15 says "God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

God gave Adam a purpose... to keep and dress the garden. God always intended for man to work... He didn't design work to be so hard and debilitating in the beginning. That came as part of the sin curse which we will discuss in Genesis 3.

God gave Adam a purpose, and He gave us a purpose.

Ephesians 2:10 says "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

God handcrafted us for a purpose, and He wants us to fulfill that purpose. He wants us to follow His plan for our life. But before you can do that, you must know Jesus Christ as your Savior.

Do you know Him? Do you know God's will for your life? Are you doing what God has called you to do? May God bless you and keep you.

The Journey: Genesis 1 - It All Begins with God

God's limitless power is beyond our comprehension, and it is on full display in the creation of the universe. Think about it, God created everything from nothing! He literally spoke it all into existence.

Science says matter can be neither created nor destroyed, yet, God in His infinite power, not only created matter, but spoke it into existence. The Bible teaches that God created all things, and He will destroy this present world before creating a new, perfect world.

To be honest, God's account of creation as recorded in Genesis 1 does not jive with popular science. In Genesis, there is light before the sun was created. There was water before dry land. There were fish and birds before mammals and land animals.

The most important thing we learn in Genesis 1 is Who God is.

IT ALL BEGINS WITH GOD.

Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth." In the beginning, before time was even invented, there was God. In fact, Genesis 1:5 teaches that God created time.

John 1:1 echoes the sentiment that God is the beginning of everything. John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John shifted the attention of creation from God the Father to our Lord Jesus Christ, but you still see in this verse that God is there in the beginning, and all things begin with Him.

God is not only the beginning of the world and all the things in it, He is the beginning of everything in our lives. He is the beginning of us, for He created us. Jeremiah 1:5 says "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

God created Jeremiah to be a prophet. In the same way, He creates us with special talents and abilities to follow certain callings in our lives. However, the first step in following God's will for your life is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. This is done by repenting of sin and trusting that Christ paid for your sin when He died on the cross. However, even salvation starts with God.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says that "It is by grace through faith that you are saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast."

Following salvation, God calls us to the special area of service He has set aside for us. Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." We are God's workmanship. He hand-crafted each of us to perform some sort of good work for him, and He fully expects us to use our talents and abilities for Him.

So, if we are going to do great things for God, we are going to have to stay close to Him. For John 15:5 says "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me, ye can do nothing." God gives us all of our talents and abilities. The closer we are to Him, the more He will bless our abilities, and the more we'll accomplish for Him.

Everything about us starts with God. Who we are, what we do, where we live, what our calling is, and how successful we are.

GOD IS CREATIVE.

Genesis 1:9-10 says "And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. (10) and God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He seas; and God saw that it was good."

The view from the top of Pike's Peak, the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert and the Florida Everglades were all God's idea, and His creation. The same goes for the beaches of Southern California, Hawaii and the Caribbean.

Genesis 1:11 - "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."

Beautiful plants like roses and the great Redwood trees were God's idea and His creation.

Genesis 1:24 - "And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so."

Horses, kangaroos, dinosaurs, cats, dogs, and all the magnificent creatures that may fascinate you were all God's idea, and they were His creation.

GOD INVESTED HIS PERSONALITY TRAITS INTO US.

Genesis 1:26 says "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing thing that creepeth upon the earth."

God made us in His image, in His likeness, with His personality traits, like creativity, emotion, intelligence, and the ability to conquer. He gave us limited control over the earth, which is always subject to His will.

Genesis 1:31 says "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." God completed His creation, saw that it was good, then rested on the seventh day to bask in His greatness. Don't we do the same. When we complete a job or a project, don't we sit back for a moment and admire our work?

Hebrews 11:3 says "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

Do you believe God created the Heaven and the Earth in six days as is recorded in Genesis 1? If so, you have faith.

Is it a sin to... ?

Anyone who has been in ministry any amount of time has been asked questions that begin with, "Is it a sin to...?" Such questions range from, "Is it a sin to drink a beer?" to "Is it a sin to watch R rated movies?" "Is it a sin to get a divorce?" "Is it a sin to listen to (country, pop, rap, rock, etc) music?"

While I understand the motivation behind these questions (I even asked some of them myself when I was younger,) the fact is that if these are the questions we are asking, we are approaching our Christian walk the wrong way. You see, just about anything can be made a sin in man's eyes (whatsoever is not of faith is sin) and almost anything can be justified in man's eyes (all things are lawful unto me, but not all things expedient.) While these questions may be asked with pure intentions, often they can spark endless and futile debate.

The question is not, "Is it a sin to...?" or "Am I allowed to...?" but rather, "What does God want me to do?"

Ephesians 2:10 says "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

We are God's workmanship, which means that God created us. Not only did He create us, but He hand-crafted us. That's what workmanship is, it is hand-crafting. Every year, Detroit creates millions of cars, but they are not hand-crafted. They are not workmanship. God created the heavens and the earth, but He spoke them into existence. The heavens and earth are not God's workmanship. However, Genesis 2 says God formed man from the dust of the earth. He hand-crafted man.

Not only did he hand-craft Adam, the first man, but he forms all people in the womb. (Isaiah and Jeremiah both speak to this, specifically Jeremiah 1:5).

God created us, He created all of us, and He created all of us with a purpose.

We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. What this means is that God created us with a purpose, and once we are in Christ Jesus (meaning, once we know Jesus as our Savior), we can know and follow that purpose for which God has created us, and He expects us to follow that purpose.

So, while moving to California and renting a two-room flat in L.A. might not be a sin per se, doing that if God wants you to go to New York is a sin. The prophet Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh. Jonah opted to go to Tarshish. Jonah's decision, seeing that it was the opposite of what God wanted, was a sin. Not following God's will for your life is a sin.

So the question is, "What does God want me to do?" Good question. That's the one you should be asking, not whether it is a sin to consume high fructose corn syrup.

"How do I find out what God wants me to do?" Prayer, spend time studying your Bible, and take time daily to meditate on the Lord and His Word.

God bless you as you seek God's will in your life.

A Subtle Moment with Other Believers

I took my family to the Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX, today. Dinosaur Valley is a state park designated around fossilized dinosaur footprints in the bed of the Paluxy River. These footprints were discovered in the early part of the 20th century, when flood waters subsided, breaking off a shelf of limestone, thus exposing the footprints. What paleontologists found is up for debate.

The official record states that a variety of dinosaur footprints were found. Some were removed and taken to the natural history museum at the University of Texas, while others were taken to some paleontology lab in New York. The rest of the footprints were left in tact, and later incorporated into a park for the enjoyment of the public.

Creationists have alleged that the footprints taken from the park contained more than just dinosaur footprints. They contained human footprints as well, thus proving that dinosaurs and humans coexisted, rendering the Biblical account of creation more credible and shooting some holes in the theory of evolution. Therefore, the government removed the human footprints so as to preserve the teaching of evolution (even though creationism was the more popular view in that day, as was being taught in the classrooms). There is much documentation of both sides of this argument.

So, we viewed the dinosaur footprints, and I also look for any signs in the rock that there was a human presence in that time. So far, no luck. (We've visited several times.)

Today, while walking along the banks of the Paluxy River, a couple approached us and asked about the human footprints. I told them that I hadn't found them and that they had likely been removed. It was a brief encounter, but very interesting that there are others with the same fascinations as me. A couple searching for human footprints in the bed of the Paluxy River are more than likely believers, and possibly creationists. Either way, I totally blew an opportunity to have meaningful conversations with other believers.

GAP on the brain

Did you know that between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 that God created a perfect world which was totally wrecked by Satan when he fell from Heaven? It's there. I mean, you won't read about it in Genesis 1, but it happened. How do I know? Because so many ABA preachers have made it a point to advocate the theory known as the Gap Theory.

The theory works like this.

God is not the author of confusion, and we have to find a way to explain the dinosaur fossils that are buried deep within the earth's surface.

So, we have the recorded account of Lucifer (aka Satan, aka the devil) falling from Heaven in Isaiah 14. We have the earth being without form and void in Genesis 1:2. So what must have happened, is that God created a perfect world in Genesis 1:1. Then Satan fell from Heaven between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, meaning God had to reconstruct the world throughout the rest of Genesis 1.

Here are my thoughts on the gap theory.

#1. Why is the gap theory being preached as Gospel truth? Seriously, I have heard it preached as if it were as much a part of the Gospel as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins according to the scriptures.

#2. How can the gap theory be true when Romans 5:12 says "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned?" It seems Romans 5:12 blames the death and destruction of this world on sin, not the fall of Lucifer from Heaven. Granted, it was Satan who led man to sin, but he was not the one who brought death. (Which refutes other teachings on Adam and Eve that I will share at a time that I am so inclined.).

#3. The destruction described in Isaiah 14:17 does not describe what Lucifer did to the world between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Man had not been created, therefore there were no cities to destroy. Man could not have died, because sin had not entered the world (By Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, remember?) No, Isaiah 14:17 are the words of the people who will see Satan face his final judgment in the end. They are describing what Satan did throughout human history and more notably the Great Tribulation, not what he did in the beginning.

#4. Don't hang the gap theory on the nail of Hebrew translation. Many great false doctrines and cults have been started as a result of "alternate" translations of the original language.

I could go on, but I will stop.

I do not make the gap a point of fellowship, but I grow tired of those who subscribe to the gap theory accepting it and pushing it as a Bible doctrine as solid and clear as salvation by grace through faith, wages of sin being death, the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross, and love for each other being our supreme witness for the fact that we are children of God... and quit referring to Genesis 1 as "the reconstruction."

Faith is important

So, Jessica, Rachel and I were staying at the Whitten Inn in Abilene watching a History Channel program about ancient man's first trip to America. The show dated man's arrival at 10,000 BC. Jessica and I explained to Rachel that the authors of the program didn't really know when man first came to America, but it could have been no earlier than 6,000 years ago. Any that came over then were wiped out by the flood. All others arrived between now and 4,400 years ago.

"Why don't they know when people came over?" she asked.

"Because they find their bones in the ground and try to guess," Jessica and I replied. "But the Bible teaches that God created the world about 6,000 years ago."

We explained that when her dinosaur books said "millions of years ago," what they really meant was "Long long ago."

Let's face it, sifting through archaeological and geological data can be confusing. I mean, have you ever taken geology? I gave up after two weeks and rode my roommate's coat tails.

If you do not have the proper background in interpreting the artifacts uncovered, you can get lost in a sea of stone fragments. However, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which do appear (Hebrews 11:3).

Take the Grand Canyon, for instance. Looking at the river flowing at the bottom of it, a logical person would assume it took that river millions of years to carve that canyon. However, an informed person would know that the Grand Canyon was not formed by that river, it was formed by a flood. The river is a byproduct of that flood. So, the things which are seen were not made by the things which do appear. Can a canyon the size of the Grand Canyon be carved out in a 150-day flood (Genesis 7:24)? Sure. An 80-foot canyon near Canyon Lake, TX was carved out in a three-day flood.

And these are things we never miss an opportunity to discuss with our children, so that they will have the faith to understand that God created the world.

Discipleship is a long-range process, especially with one's children. To be successful, one must have the faith in order to pass it on.