Bible Year Week 1 (January 12)

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Today marks the first full week of our Bible Year. We have read the first twenty-three chapters in Genesis, beginning with creation and ending with the burial of Sarah, Abraham's wife. 

Our Bible Year Pastor's Bible Study begins tonight, Wednesday, January 12, at 5:30 PM! We hope you will join us in-person in the Family Life Center, or online on Zoom!

Zoom Meeting Info: Click here to join the meeting.

Meeting ID: 837 8303 4354; Passcode: 391975

I also encourage you to request to join the Ocala FUMC The Bible Year Small Group on Facebook. The group allows for ongoing discussion of the daily readings.

The Bible Project is a great resource for short teaching videos on the Bible.  Here are a couple you may find helpful for our first week of readings from Genesis.

Finally, here is summary of my sermon from Sunday. 

You can watch the full sermon on YouTube (CLICK HERE)

Sermon Summary

In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we are introduced to the foundational truths of our faith and to the themes that we will revisit repeatedly as we read the entire Bible together this year. What we will we discover is that we are not just reading stories about our origins or even the stories of our spiritual ancestors who lived thousands of years ago, we are learning OUR story.

 Here are the truths we learn:

1

We are a part of a beautiful creation.

God has breathed into us the breath of life.

In that same breath, God said, “it is good.”

As we read over the poetic and majestic stories of creation, we see the heart and character of God who breathes light and life, beauty and order, goodness and creativity into existence. God still breathes into us with that same breath - that same spirit. The story of creation is our story too. We are a part of God’s beauty and order, goodness and creativity, generosity and life.

2

We have the capacity to live within

God’s goodness and beauty.

We also have the capacity to rebel and disobey,

seeking to go our own way,

seeking to be our own god.

We see this lesson in the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. God says one thing. Human beings go their own way. Instead of trusting in God, they seek control of their own lives and secure their own future. In so doing, they miss the mark of God’s best for them over and over. Does anyone deny that isn’t our story too?

3

God works to redeem us and restore us

again and again and again.

As we read the story of Adam and Eve, and the story of Noah and the Flood, and the story of the Tower of Babel, we don’t just read a story of God’s goodness and of our rebellion. We read a story about a God who will not give up on humanity.

I am thankful that this part of the story is our story too.

I am glad that God did not give up on us.

I am grateful that God will stop at nothing to redeem us, to give us a second chance, and to help us get back on our feet and back on track with God’s best for our lives and for our world. 

I am humbled by a God who hasn’t let go of the goodness and beauty of creation – including the goodness and beauty of our own creation. 

God invites us to share in this redemptive work. The work is hard, it can be painful, and the labor can be a great burden. But it is no less than working with God to create a future filled with hope and love, filled with goodness and mercy, filled with justice and peace, filled with life and light and beauty.

The story we began to read this week in Genesis is a great story. And it’s our story. We get to read it together. And we get to live it together. Thanks be to God.

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