Welcome to our third quarter’s Lesson studies.

The topic of God Created . . .  blesses us with a myriad of hymns:

Hymn 2, “All Creatures of Our God and King,
Hymn 93, “All Things Bright and Beautiful”,
Hymn 98, “Can You Count the Stars”,
Hymn 565, “For the Beauty of the Earth”,
Hymn 96, “The Spacious Firmament”,
Hymn 640, “For Beauty of Meadows”,
Hymn 92, “This Is My Father’s World”,
Hymn 111, “It Took a Miracle”, and ending with 
Hymn 381, “Holy Sabbath, Day of Rest”.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
May the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
And give you peace.

</blockquote>2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”<blockquote>

Amen!(0)

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Key Thought: God appointed human being to tend and care for His Creation. We still have a role as stewards in honoring God by fulfilling this role as caretakers of Creation.

July 6, 2019

1. Have a volunteer read Genesis 1:25-31.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does it mean about nature that God saw that it was very good?
3. Personal Application: What do you especially appreciate about Creation? How could you know the Lord better through nature? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “The earth is broken down. Nature is dangerous and wild. How can we see the goodness in tornadoes, tsunamis, floods, fires, and destruction? Mankind has misused and abused nature and each other.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Genesis 2:15.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What does it mean to dress the earth and keep it?
3. Personal Application: How should your being a steward of the earth affect how you live day to day? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Did God make weeds along with the plants and flowers? Why are there many poisonous plants and prickers, briers, and thorny bushes?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Genesis 3:16-19..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What do these verses tell us about changed relationships between humans and the natural world?
3. Personal Application: By avoiding the natural birth process by C-Sections, are women avoiding or circumventing the curse given by God of pain in child birth? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states, “I thought work was a blessing to mankind. But this says the ground was cursed for Adam’s sin. So what is the curse to Adam if it isn’t work?” How would you reply to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Proverbs 22:2.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What does it mean that the rich and poor meet together? Does this imply a brotherhood and kinship?
3. Personal Application: Where do you draw the line on helping someone? Are there cases where you wouldn’t help someone for a specific reason? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

<blockquote>(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.” Ministry of Healing, p. 148).</blockquote>

Amen!(0)

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It is easy to feel homesick for Eden. There is something in the brief descriptions of the Garden that God created as the home for Adam and Eve that sparks a note of longing in our hearts. We may not understand how such a world would work, but we feel we would like to experience it.

Image © Justinen Creative from GoodSalt.com

It seems the sense of satisfaction and completeness was also something that God felt: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen. 1:31, NIV). God made something that was both beautiful and functional. It was exquisite in its design, in both form and practicality. It was vibrant with life and color, but also filled with everything necessary for life to flourish. No wonder God kept pausing to muse that this world that He was making was good.

Read Genesis 1:1-31. What do you think is meant by the repeated statements that “God saw that it was good”? See Gen. 1:4, Gen. 1:10, Gen. 1:12, Gen. 1:18, Gen. 1:25, and Gen. 1:31.

Even though written entirely after the Fall, the Bible is filled with celebrations of the natural world, such as in Job 38 to 41 and Psalm 148. And we must remember that these are not written as a glimpse looking back to how the world was when first created and before sin; they are written in the present tense, celebrating the goodness that is still evident in our world.

Jesus, too, drew examples of God’s goodness and care from the natural world (see, for example, Matt. 6:26, Matt. 6:28-30), commending both our reliance on God and an appreciation of the simple gifts that surround us with wonder. If we open our eyes and look at the marvels of creation, we can see that we are truly the recipients of marvelous gifts from our Creator. Our response, even amid trials, should be one of gratitude, thankfulness, and humble surrender to the Gift-giver.

As Seventh-day Adventists—those who both celebrate Creation and anticipate God’s coming kingdom—we should realize that the beauties, joys, and goodness we see and experience in the world are glimpses of what our world once was and what will, again, be.

Amen!(0)

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This world and all life on it, our own life and all we do with it—our existence begins with God, “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, NKJV).

Here’s where the Bible’s story begins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1, NKJV). And the fact that He spoke it into existence points to a power and a process that we can’t even begin to imagine.

And yet, God didn’t create from a distance; He was intimately involved, especially when it came to creating the first human being (see Gen. 2:7).

Read the story of the creation of the first human beings in Genesis 1:26-31. What important things does this account tell us about God? What important things does it tell us about people?

Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com

It has often been said that we can learn a lot about God from spending time in nature, from looking at His creation, and seeing in it glimpses of the character of the Creator Himself. But we can also see glimpses of how God created the world to be from examining our understanding of God Himself. For example, if God is a God of order, we should expect to find order in His creation. Or if we believe that God is a God of creativity, we should not be surprised to find incredible examples of that creativity in the world He made.

Similarly, we believe that God is a God of relationships, and so, we find relationships as a core element in how God put the world together. He created each element of the world in relation to the rest of Creation. He created animals in relational harmony. He created human beings in relationship with Himself, with each other, and with the rest of creation.

While our understanding of God is limited in many ways, what we can see of His character should prompt us to reconsider how the world should be.

Amen!(0)

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Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 1:1-3:24, Acts 17:28, Psalm 148:1-14, Ps. 24:1, Gen. 4:1-9, Matt. 22:37-39, Rev. 14:7.

Memory Text: “He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy” (Proverbs 14:31, NKJV).

Have you ever worked to create something—perhaps an item of art or craft, a meal, or some other creative work—only to have it broken or rejected by the person you gave it to? If so, you might have just a small glimpse of what God experienced when He made this world and gave human beings life, only then to see what He created broken by sin.

The Bible says that the world was created carefully and created “very good”. How God felt about His creation is evident in the accounts of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2. This is the context in which we should read the story of the Fall in Genesis 3 and the heartbrokenness of God as He confronts the people He has made.

Remarkably, our world continues to be something that God loves, even despite millennia of sin, violence, injustice, and outright rebellion. And even more remarkably, while God set in motion His plan for redeeming and re-creating the world, He has given us, as believers, roles to play in the fulfillment of His larger plans. Yes, we are the recipients of His grace; but, from the grace we have received, we have been given our work to do as colaborers with our Lord. What a solemn, sacred responsibility!

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 6.

Amen!(0)

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