Part 1 of a four-part series on the Good News.

  1. Created by God our Father
  2. Kidnapped by the Enemy
  3. Rescued by Jesus Christ
  4. New Life in Christ

“The truth is, Father, I can pray better in my tree stand than in a church.” People say this and then they look at me like I’m going to get offended. My best prayer all year was the five days I spent kayaking around Isle Royale. We had no cell service; we could just barely get the weather radio channels. The strongest channel was from Canada and it was in French. We got up with the sun and ended with campfires. I enjoyed picking thimbleberries for dessert and watching the huge carpet of stars at night. Most of the time we are surrounded by things humans made: homes, cars, TVs, clothing. We don’t realize how much ‘daily life’ is cut off from reality. When we finally get out in the world God made, after a little bit of disorientation and panic, we start to feel a deep sense of relief.

The Bible starts with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I often bring up the first 3 chapters of Genesis. I have come to realize that if you don’t get this right, the rest of the Christian message makes little sense. “God created.” That means that we are surrounded by creation. Beatles and bacteria, dogs to dinosaurs, the solar system and the ecosystem -- they are all art projects of our Father God. We are taught from a young age to see the world as “evolution”, that everything came about because of random chance and natural selection. We forget that the Theory of Evolution covers only how things came to be, but does not answer who made them or why they were made. And this is what the Bible focuses on: God made the world, and he made it for us.

Do you realize that you too are a Creation of God? God pauses to think before he makes human beings (Genesis 1:26). Humans are made in God’s image and likeness. He blesses them and says, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” He gives us dominion over all the creatures. We are stewards of creation but not masters of it. Because while we have dominion over all creation, we too are a creation of God. When you look at the creatures around you, do you celebrate God’s genius? When you look at your body in the mirror, do you say to yourself, “God made this”? And he saw that it was good! We should marvel at the beauty of creation. God does. At the end of the work, God stood back and admired all his creation: “and behold, it was very good.”

Part 2: Kidnapped by the Enemy