In the beginning God...

(Genesis 1:1) “In the beginning God…”

Understanding that in the beginning it was God who orchestrated all things is probably the most crucial piece of the puzzle if we are to fathom out our roles here on earth. Twist that bit of information and our perceptions will be skewed. We have an enemy that is in the process and with many varying opinions is endeavouring to deceive as many individuals as possible. Why is he so consumed with propagating lies? His intention is to defy God and to target those who have been created in the likeness and image of God, mankind! He is the villain and he has been summoned to play a vital part within God’s production.  

Today could be a day where God in His mercy would allow the penny to drop into certain areas of your life concerning your role in His production. But in order for this to happen it is imperative we understand and are convinced with the truth of this certainty that “In the beginning God…”.

Let our minds travel back in time to the instituting of this stint in God’s being. If I can drive home this truth to our understanding it will bring about positive changes within our lives, I am certain of this.

Many years ago God decided that He would declare his brilliance to all things created; in order for this to happen He needed a script and so He sat in the throes of the heavens and began to think things through, no different in type to the production of a movie or a play. There are three stages overarching any production; pre-production, production and post-production. The pre-production stage is time consuming, it is the think tank behind it all and many factors need to be considered. The storyline, money to cover the costs, actors to act out the production, cameramen, lights, varying location, costumes, the building of sets and much more. Without all of these “t’s” crossed and “i’s” dotted there will be problems within the production. In other words the costs must be factored into the production prior to the making of it if it is to be successful. God considered all that was needed for His production and we know that He was very pleased with the outcome; “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good…” (Genesis 1:31)

God is ever powerful and has all the tools needed to accomplish His production. And so He establishes this fact in the very first line of the Bible, “In the beginning God…” He removes any doubt about creation and its origin. Next He explains the catalyst used to show us how this all happened; “And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) – The Apostle John gives us a deeper insight into this and informs us that the Lord Jesus is the Word; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) – How do we know that this is a reference to the Lord Jesus? Because he later explains; “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

However we can never overlook the fact that God spoke the worlds into existence and that the same God became a man and paid the price for our sins. This was His intention from before the foundations of the worlds. It was part of His pre-production preparation. He hasn’t left anything to chance and rewritten the script along the way as some may believe; it was all carefully premeditated in the same way a script is planned out prior to production. How do I know this to be true? “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6) – It is all about God showing us His brilliance, His production, His will and not our own. I trust that is clearly understood!    

It was by the “Word of God”, God commanded the light to come forth out of the darkness and so it happened. God is so powerful that when He speaks it happens. We need material to build something, He doesn’t! Somewhere in the curtains of the heavens God had a meeting, a post-production meeting if you like. The God-Head came together and considered their upcoming production. We see a picture of the Godhead (“us”) discussing the creation of mankind, which informs us of their debate; “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26) - Here is a reference to God in the plural content; proving that God is made up of more than one entity and yet God refers to Himself as God in the singular. What is going on here? There are differing references which highlights the Godhead and without going into it in depth, here is one that proves the point; “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) – God consists of three individuals, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit; their minds are always in sink, with each individual playing out their own specific function.

Now back to God’s creation; the main characters within the varying roles of His productions are mankind and they were created in His image and likeness; “Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

God finishes creation; the scene is now set with the cameras already rolling with the scenes unravelling. Production well on its way…

It’s God’s production and not mine nor yours and we must always remember to keep this truth in the back of our minds. He is the director and He will direct and determine the specific roles for all of its characters. If and when we misalign ourselves with this reality it then becomes our production and not God’s and it will end badly for us.

When we read the Bible from cover to cover we see that it is filled with all the intrigue any blockbuster has. There are villains and heroes; there is love and heartache; there is suspense and brilliance interwoven within the underlined messages of the production. In a nutshell it is brilliance personified with all of mankind and creation playing their part in it, whether we are privy to it or not. If carefully unpacked we may only see a snippet of the magnitude of God’s brilliance, for we look at it through the eyes of faith but at the end of it all, we all will understand God’s intentions. But for now only those who come to this understanding; that it is God’s production and not ours, only these individuals will truly understand their roles in it. When a potter places a clump of clay onto a potter’s wheel does the clay tell the potter what to create? No! The potter always has power over the clay.

To be continued…

Signing off

Tyrone