In the Beginning
Genesis 1-2:3
Have you ever wondered about your family history your genealogy and your ancestors? Who are the people that you come from and what were they like, how did they live and where did they live?
Well for most of us those are questions of self discovery. What we really want to know is not so much who were the people in my family tree but who am I and how did I get to be me?
Some of you like me have traced your family tree back across the centuries in an effort to learn about your ancestors and your family origins.
The family of man shares that same fascination and we have been looking back over the millennia in an effort to discover who we are and where we came from.
Our search has led us in a couple of directions. For some people it means they have relied on a thing called history. History is made up of all kinds of things, oral history or stories, recorded history such as books and monuments, and there is physical history such as artifacts and bones. For others they have relied on a thing called science. Science relies on things such as chemistry and biology as well as geology and it too relies on physical things in order to classify or identify different periods of time.
The result has been that there is a strong difference of opinion between these two groups as both have offered a story or narrative about the origins of human beings. But does this difference of opinion mean that one group’s story is entirely wrong or that one group’s story is entirely right or does it just means that their search has provided them with different discoveries that are to hard for either group to comprehend?
The problem is that each group wants to be right at the expense of the other group and thus own the right to claim definitively that their story of the origins of mankind is the true and only possible explanation that makes sense.
The group relying on history is often the religious group that many of us fall into and the group relying on science is often the non-religious group. The fact is that each group borrows from the disciplines of the other in order to present their version of the story of human origins.
The religious group borrows the system of science to date bones and artifacts and the non-religious group borrows historical evidence to substantiate their position. Could it be that each group has something valuable to offer about our origins – well yes that’s most likely the case but some folks would accuse you of sitting on the fence which means that as long as you are on the fence you remain up in the air and mange to keep your foot off the ground of one argument or the other.
The religious group says that they rely on a thing called faith and the non- religious group says that they rely on a thing called theory. Both faith and theory are subjected to testing before either can be proved one way or the other.
Encarta Dictionary
Faith - belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof
Theory - a set of facts, propositions, or principles analyzed in their relation to one another and used, especially in science, to explain phenomena
So for now our world is still unclear about the origins of mankind and we are left with two opposing viewpoints.
What you have to decide is which side of the fence are you on? Can you comfortably stand on the side of faith or are you more comfortable standing on the side of theory?
What history has taught me is that human beings are incapable of governing themselves. Human beings have indeed demonstrated that they poses and exercise a fallen nature and that they are cruel, unjust and oppressive towards one another resulting in ever increasing conflict that leads to death. Man is his own worst enemy. Man needs to be ruled or governed by a power greater than himself.
For me that search leads to the God of the Bible the Creator. Such a conclusion means that I must come to terms with the fact that I need to be governed and not just want to be governed.
Today we live in a world that is filled with over 7 billion human beings yet many of us feel alone and in need of being loved unconditionally. What we have found is that human love while it is a wonderful thing is not sufficient to address the deep longing within our inner being. That deep longing is what sets most of us off on our quest to discover who we are in order to find out if there is a God who has created us.
My answer to each one of you is that you have to look for yourself. For me the answer is the God of the Bible. It has required effort on my part to discover Him. But it was not a difficult discovery.
I see the Living God all around me in the majesty of His creation, the earth and stars, the plants and creatures as well as you my fellow human beings.
For me the Story of the Bible makes sense and is plausible and trustworthy. Over 7,000 years of human history bear it out.
That deep desire that resides within me is my soul that part of me that is eternal and that will go beyond this mortal experience called life. It is my soul that longs to be one with God for as we will learn next week it is the one and only thing in me that comes from God. If you are searching for God in your life today I suggest you start looking in Chapter one of Genesis. – Amen.
