Genesis 1:1-31 Web

Was it so even in the beginning? Did light and darkness divide the realm of time in the first day? Then little wonder is it if I have also changes in my circumstances from the sunshine of prosperity to the midnight of adversity. It will not always be the blaze of noon even in my soul concerns, I must expect at seasons to mourn the absence of my former joys, and seek my Beloved in the night. Nor am I alone in this, for all the Lord's beloved ones have had to sing the mingled song of judgment...

Light might well be good since it sprang from that fiat of goodness, "Let there be light." We who enjoy it should be more grateful for it than we are, and see more of God in it and by it. Light physical is said by Solomon to be sweet, but gospel light is infinitely more precious, for it reveals eternal things, and ministers to our immortal natures. When the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual light, and opens our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we behold sin in its...

This morning we noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord's dividing it from the darkness, we now note the special eye which the Lord had for the light. "God saw the light"-he looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it "was good." If the Lord has given you light, dear reader, he looks on that light with peculiar interest; for not only is it dear to him as his own handiwork, but because it is like himself, for "He is light." Pleasant it is to the believer...

If we separate the first four words of Genesis 1:1 from the rest of the verse, they form a sort of motto for all of life. They say, "God first."

We find this motto suggested in the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." No one and nothing must take the place of the true and living God.

We find it taught in the story of Elijah and the widow who had only enough flour and oil left to make one final loaf for her son...

God never leaves Himself without a witness. In the darkest days, a voice sounds out for Him in clear, articulate tones. Often in the most unusual circumstances, He raises up some unexpected confessor to speak His Name boldly.

In the days before the flood, the earth was gripped by violence and immorality. But Noah was there to take a valiant stand for the Lord.

It seemed to Elijah that all Israel had sunk in idolatry, but God had 7000 men that had not bowed to Baal.

In the...

Jesus … was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death … that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. § One died for all. § As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.“The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit … However the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. § God said, “Let Us make man in Our image,...

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ … We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. § For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to...