Devotionals from my Bible app: God as Your Creator (Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1, NKJV

Note before sharing the devotional: And, as a follow-up from the post a few days ago, here is Genesis 1:1. Once again, the devotional below refers to Jesus as the Word. In other words, Jesus is the Bible, and the Bible is Jesus. Although this reference doesn’t occur super-often in Scripture, I think this is a very key concept that one must grasp.

Although this isn’t central to the devotional below, here is something else that Jesus has to say that is still very important for believers to understand:

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” John 8:58, NKJV

God as Your Creator


Have you ever paused to reflect on God as your Creator?


God is unlike any other that is, was, or will be. He alone is able to fully sustain that which He creates. And He alone is able to create, merely by speaking it into existence.


“Genesis” means “beginning,” and it’s where we read about God’s first creation. If you dig deeper into the pages of Scripture, you learn about power by which God creates.


Take John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.”


Or Colossians 1:16: “For in him, all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”


The writer of Hebrews assures us that, “by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3 NIV).

This “Word” is Jesus Christ, and through Him, God brought everything into existence. The ultimate redemption of all God’s promises will come through that same Word—Jesus Christ.


Reflect on that truth for a moment: The same power that spoke the universe into existence is the same power that will bring about the redemption of all things promised.


Today, take some time to reflect on God’s role as Creator, and allow it to fill you with great hope. Because He’s not just any creator; He’s your Creator, and He holds the very universe—and your life—in His hands.


https://bible.com/bible/114/gen.1.1.NKJV


Note after sharing the devotional: one of my many ongoing projects is to write or rewrite pop/rock songs I’ve written with Biblical lyrics. I have noticed how recent Christian pop music has (gradually) moved away from expressing Biblical truths and from focusing on praising and worshiping God, to talking about oneself while referencing God. (I hold the opinion that there isn’t anything inherently wrong about it, with the caveat that those songs should be marketplace songs, not church songs.) I hadn’t understood this so clearly before as I do now, but even then, I’ve noticed for a long time how much more difficult it has been for me to write Christian music that doesn’t directly quote Scripture. I used to reason that, due to my upbringing in the Anglican choral tradition, I put myself in a spot where I completely relied on someone else to write the words (lyrics still aren’t my strong suit to this day). Having grown in my faith over the years and growing in awareness of various different things, I have found that the only way to truly worship the Lord is either to quote Scripture directly, or praise Him in such a way that it still involves reflecting the Word back to Him. One of the times that I felt that this worked really well was a song I wrote in 2013 titled Messenger Song, in which with God’s help I created a “found poem” based on text from Malachi, chapters 3 and 4.

The first verse of Messenger Song goes thusly (and yes, this song and these lyrics are copyrighted):

God has ordered you

His covenant it stands

His covenant with you is life and health

Stand in awe of Him

Revere His great Name

Let true instruction be in your mouth

Your lips should guard His truth

His people should seek it from you

You are His messenger

And neither should you edit His voice 

Honor your Father, and serve your God

The direct words from the book of Malachi show God directly addressing His people from the first-person point of view (and as such, the original version of these lyrics were from that view! I changed them to present God in the third person because I didn’t feel comfortable singing these lyrics -- or having this song presented -- as if I or whoever was singing was standing in the place of God). 

The bridge also shows an urgent message from the Lord to His people (yes, also copyrighted):

See, God’s day is coming

Those against Him will perish

But for you who love Him and keep His commandments

The sun of righteousness will rise

with healing in His wings 

And you will tread down your enemies

As I completed this song, I got this sense that this message was for the church. Makes sense, since the book of Malachi is addressed the Lord’s people of Israel, after their post-exilic return and re-settlement into Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, but before Jesus’s arrival. Aside from posting this on Bandcamp, I otherwise haven’t performed this as there didn’t really seem to be any kind of opening at my church at the time to share this (and I don’t begrudge the Vineyard for this; this is simply an acknowledgement of where things were at at the time).

Last fall, I remade one song that was originally a song of darkness, and provided lyrics to another song that was also half-written a few years ago but the original lyrics I had put together just didn’t feel right (it would have been a marketplace song, at best). But having come across a couple of Bible-based podcasts talking about how various churches and Bible translations (especially across the 20th century) have been trying to strip away various verses across Scripture, verses that are central to the faith and almost impossible to twist, I felt it was imperative that I write music that included at least one of these verses, quoted directly (or almost directly) from Scripture. One of those verses (which isn’t in either song) comes from Acts 8:37 (NKJV):

Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

The other reference, which I included in one of the above-mentioned songs (I cannot share the lyrics as the pieces are still in progress compositionally), comes from 1 John 5:7 (NKJV):

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

Read the footnotes for yourself for each to see what Biblegateway says. I’m not entirely sure when these verses were stripped away, whether it was the 20th century or far earlier. Regardless, it doesn’t matter. The Word is the Word.

To wrap up these remarks, I say all the above to say that it was through these discoveries that God helped me make the connection of Jesus being one and the same as the Word (i.e. the Bible). I think this is a foundational truth, one that I’m sure many will not want to hear. I will say also that it gives this statement by Jesus to the Pharisees a bit of a different flavor (at least for me, for I previously only saw it as a mark against legalism, which it still is; but it is so much more than only that!):

But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:38-40, NKJV

He’s not saying to not spend time in the Word (in fact He’s saying the opposite!); what He is saying is that it’s not enough only to read the Word to gain knowledge for yourself, whether of the Law or anything else. Reading the Word must involve spending time with it like a relationship, to let it shape you, and not the other way around. No other book can do this (and I’ve known of many bookworms through my years who have elevated other great literary works of art to the point that they act as if they have a relationship with these other books, while devaluing the Bible because they have equated elevating it to legalism. Regardless, this type of other-book-elevation is indeed yet another form of idolatry).

Jesus is the Word. He was also there at the beginning of time, as stated below.

He was in the beginning with God. John 1:2, NKJV

Prayer: God, thank You for being the creator of all things. You hold the entire world in Your hands and still care for me. I have hope for today, knowing that You designed me on purpose for a purpose. Let me reflect Your power to others. In Jesus’s name, Amen.