The Beginning and the End

Gen. 1:1    "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good..."

In the beginning, God... That's all we need to know, really.  

First is a thing. I was here first.  We were here first. (We know that first is a thing because we know how we feel about line jumping...)(Sooners know about this...!)  And when it comes to everything, God was here first.  In other words, He gets dibs.

In the beginning, God... Created... Not only was He here first, He made it all.  Everything.  It's all His.  I was here first, and this is My stuff.

Deut. 10:14 “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

1Chr. 29:11 “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all."

In the beginning, God created.  He created it all. Everything. The heavens and the earth, and everything that is in them. It's all His - He not only owns it, He made it.

He is the Creator, the uncaused First Cause.  Every thing we see, every action, is caused by something else, some prior cause, causes caused by other causes going back all the way to the very beginning.  To the first cause, caused by this very One Who was there in the beginning, Who cranked it all up (and Who - unlike the watchmaker who winds up their watch and then just sits there watching it, letting it go with no further hands-on involvement - continues to actively and sovereignly superintend all subsequent causes towards His desired end/ends).  

-But He was also there before the beginning.  Scripture and the universe reveal to us a God Who is eternal and uncaused, infinite in His being and His perfections, all-knowing and all-powerful.  Incomparable.  Transcendent.  The Ultimate.  The great I AM.  The God Who always is, Who always was, and Who always will be.  The Beginning and the End. 

Is 41:4, "Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He."

So why did He do all this? Why this Beginning? What is the End of this Beginning, in other words?

Neh. 9:6 “You alone are the LORD. 

You have made the heavens, 

The heaven of heavens with all their host, 

The earth and all that is on it, 

The seas and all that is in them. 

You give life to all of them 

And the heavenly host bows down before You."

-Think about this. God created - and He saw.  And He saw that it was good.  He created - out of nothing - things which could be seen (5 senses), AND admired.  Just as He is to be admired for Who He is, not just what He does. Admired and praised and honored not only because of The breathtaking goodness He causes, but for His breathtaking goodness.  Because He is the uncaused Cause, the great I AM, the Almighty God and King of the universe. 

Is. 42:8 "I am the LORD; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols."

-And He made us in His image. We are little creators... We create things - to be admired...

And because He made it all He has a doubly vested interest in it. He cares about it. A lot. All of it. He cares about you. A lot. He has a doubly vested interest in you.  You are not simply some random cosmic accident, some by-product of billions of years of hopeful mutations.  He formed you in your mother's womb, fearfully and wonderfully fashioned your heart and your substance.  Before He even formed you He knew you, and loved you, with an everlasting love.  He has always loved you, always been there for you, always will, all the days of your life.  He designed you, every aspect of who you are and who you will be.  He knows every last hair on your head.  And He has laid out the days of your life, and laid on you a glorious purpose. To know and experience and revel in His goodness in such a way and to such an extent, to be so filled up with Him that it spills out and over to your neighbors and to the nations. And to that end He has crafted and gifted you with unique passions and abilities to somehow contribute to the spread of this knowledge and celebration of His goodness, each and every day.  Think about this.  Are we not like Him as well in this respect? Are we not wired to be admired for who we are? Special. And that we are - the apple of His eye...!

-In the beginning, God.  He started it all.  And thus we start with Him, because He is the End of all we do.  Every day. Everything we do. All things are for Him. They are all from Him, and through Him. He must have first place in everything. They all - everything - is His. It all belongs to Him.  Because He made it. We all belong to Him.  So let's make sure we have this straight. He comes first. He is the beginning - and the end - of all we do.  As individuals.  As families.  And as a church family.  In the beginning God, because, in the end God.  He is the beginning and the end.  The Alpha and the Omega.  The reason He cranked it all up in the first place was for the increase of the display and the celebration of His glory.  The admiration of His breathtaking goodness and manifold perfections.  That He would be the beginning and the end of all we do.  The great all-encompassing what-for.  First place.  Colossians 1.18 - "...so that He will come to have first place in everything...". First place in our hearts.  First place in our church.  First place in the universe.  Because, let us make no mistake, in the end, every knee WILL bow.  Every tongue WILL confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.  To the glory of God the Father. First place.

-Thus each one of us, we have our own beginning, as well as the possibility of a REbeginning. That place and time where we turn back in our hearts to our Creator, thru Jesus. Because... We all choose to go our own way and do our own thing and to put God in second place - or third. Or perhaps not at all. The Bible calls this sin, and the penalty for this wayward disobedience is death. Eternal separation from the God Who made us and so loves us. He loved us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins, to provide a gift of forgiveness for all the ways we fall short of honoring Him as God. This was the great RE-beginning.  All of created history, from that very first beginning, was marching steadily and inexorably towards the Cross.  Towards that time when God would begin to REstore and REbuild that which was broken through the fall.  To REvive hearts which had gone astray from Him. To make possible for each one of us the Great REbirth.  Each one of us must come to this place where we begin with Jesus, where we begin to follow Him, where we begin to believe not just facts about Him but where we begin to believe IN Him, where we begin to trust that His death is the only sufficient payment for our sins. And the very moment you put your trust in Jesus, He comes into your heart and you begin a new life, life forever. 

Each day then becomes a new beginning, in fact - not starting over with Jesus but rather another day of learning what it means to put God in first place.  I put Him in first place yesterday? Wonderful! Today is a new day. I must begin again to put The Lord first today, no matter what I did yesterday. Maybe I did not put Him first yesterday? No matter - today is still a new day. It can be a new beginning of greater devotion to the Lord.  

This is the journey of faith, the pilgrimage of The People of God, if you will.  Learning to put God first in everything. This is the lesson which the Lord sought to teach and reinforce for Israel from the very beginning. Put Me first. Ex 22:29. Prov 3:9.

And if we're honest, it can be a struggle, can it not? So many competing affections, lesser loves, things to which we give our heart and our time and our treasure. We settle for making mud pies in the slum, so much cotton candy. We are like the prodigal, wandering away from home and trying to fill the hole in our hearts with something - anything other than the Father Who so loves us and Who is a party waiting to happen. He is watching and waiting for us each and every day, waiting for us to ... wait for Him (Is 40, whole chapter, esp v 31).

Ex. 20:2   “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods BEFORE Me."

Psa. 86:9  "All nations whom You have made shall come and worship BEFORE You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name."

There is no one greater, none higher, none better.  In the beginning, God.  In all our beginnings, God.  So that in the end He might come to have first place in everything.  In our affections.  In our relationships.  In our work and our studies and our recreation and in all our pursuits.  The Beginning and the End of all things. Beginning with me.