.in the beginning.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” {Genesis 1:1}

How many times have you read the first verse of the Bible? Ten, a hundred, thousands? If you have a background like mine where you were in church nine months before you were even born, you have heard the stories of Genesis more times than you can count. When I found out that we were going to be studying Genesis this year in Bible study, I was not very excited.

How wonderful and humbling when God reminds you that even though you think you know everything there is to know about something, you haven’t even scratched the surface.

We haven’t even made it out of the first chapter of Genesis and I have already learned so much and seen new things that I have never been aware of before now. I am beginning to fall in love with Genesis and want to share some of the amazing things God is showing me just in the first chapter.

If you were about to become a parent and you knew that your child would one day rebel against you and even reject you, would you still allow the child to live? God knew before he even spoke the first command of creation that we would rebel against Him and that many would reject Him their entire lives. Yet, He still chose to create us. Oh how I love this glimpse into God’s heart! If you allow this simple truth to sink in for a little bit, it will bring you to an absolute moment of worship.

Another wonderful truth is that God created us in His image. He created us with the ability to love, to think, to reason, to communicate, to have relationships, and to have responsibility. However, we have to realize that we have a responsibility to worship, glorify, and honor our Creator. When we fail to come to this understanding, we are living in a state less than what God intended our original purpose to be.

One last amazing thing I have learned: God created the earth for man. Every day of creation was ordered perfectly to prepare for the creation of man. Before God implemented His plan for creation, He already knew the reasons behind the order He had chosen. What a great God we have!

I can’t wait to study the rest of Genesis and to see how God will continue to change my Sunday School mentality to that of new revelations. I encourage every one to study the book of Genesis if you get the chance and ask God to teach you new things you have never learned before. May you begin to see God as creator and God as the essence of knowledge and love. He truly is so good to us!

 

.clean slate.

Everyone has had one: a professor, teacher, or boss that you will never forget. They had characteristics that disturbed you, some that encouraged you, and some that downright got on your last nerve. One of the professors that I will never forget is Dr. Garris.

Dr. Garris (a.k.a. Roy, Dr. G, slave driver) is the head of the accounting department at my school so I have had my fair share of classes and advisory meetings with him. He is feared by many students, despised by some, loved by many, but respected by all. His grading system is unconventional. His tests are never how he says they will actually be. His teaching style is sporadic.

Yet his love for teaching and training his students is undeniable.

Monday morning Dr. Garris gave our class a test. Four problems designed to be completed in a fifty minute span. Pretty doable if you had studied. Unfortunately studying and I had not been friends prior to this test.

Don’t get me wrong here; I work hard in school. It is just not in my nature to be a slacker. However, I hate studying. Especially any type of studying that is not straight memorization. This is why I spent my weekend going to the Greek festival, hanging out with my family, going to the fair, and tagging along with my sister while she worked on her wedding registry.

I just was not feeling the study session.

So of course when I got the test, I did not do as well as I could have done if I had studied more. (Add in the fact that the test was not designed how he said it was going to be and I was way up the creek without a paddle.) Yet I completed all four problems within the time allotted and I turned it in with the understanding that I probably just threw my grade out the window for the rest of the semester.

Wednesday’s class came around and I was praying that there would be just enough marks on my test to encourage me to study more but not send me into a mini depression for the day. Dr. Garris proceeded to inform us that he was going to throw the first tests away and give us a new test on Friday.

1. This was a monumental day for Dr. Garris and us poor accounting majors because he has never done this for our class before.

2. He made the test open book which he has never done before.

3. I have never had a professor extend that amount of grace to me before.

That morning I had a realization–nothing too profound, but enough for me to want to share. Grace is a wonderful thing that I often forsake to remember. The grace extended by Dr. Garris reminded me of the grace that God shows me on a daily basis. If we look at everyday as a test of our actions, thoughts, and words, it becomes easy to realize that God has every right to look at me as a failure on a daily basis. I mess up, I say the wrong things at the wrong times, I don’t have the spiritual gift of mercy, I am more stubborn than a donkey. Yet, God still loves me in spite of all of my flaws.

What a humbling and refreshing thought!

God doesn’t look at how well I score on the test of each day. Instead, He sees the sacrifice of His son covering my heart, sealing me for all of eternity, and He loves me with an unending love.

This doesn’t mean that I go around intentionally sinning because I have “fire insurance.” This means that even when I sometimes allow my flesh to win the battle over my life, God doesn’t love me any less nor does He take away the precious gift He has given me through salvation.

He shows me grace more times than I deserve. How thankful I am that I have a God who loves me that much and who created me to live a life in communion with Him. What an amazing God we have!