Matt Farina - Tech / Faith / Life

God has expectations for his people. Is the number of kids we try to have an expectation he has for us? I have been asking myself this question all week. Let me try to paint the picture how I came to this question and why I think it is really tough for us to personally answer.

This past week I was on a road trip with a couple coworkers and since I am getting married they wanted to share some of their wisdom with me. Part of that had to do with having and raising kids. One of them told me that he only had two kids because if he had more he couldn't spend enough time with any one of them. This seemed to make sense at first. But, as my mind wandered on this I started to ask myself questions. How much time is enough time? If you have things in life should a kid be one of them or that Thursday night softball game? (We have a work softball league) When someone thinks about how much time is enough time are they being selfish? Would I be selfish if I were in that case? What does God command us to do?

God created man. At least that's what Genesis 2 says. The way Genesis says God created man has some pretty large implications on who we are and what our lives mean. After Genesis quickly covers creation it slows down for man and gives some more detail. Let's take a look at what it says.

One of the things in the Bible that sticks out for me is when God took that day of rest after completing the work of creation. In my mind I pictured God constantly doing things and never resting. This is in stark contrast to that idea. At the same time, I find myself constantly doing things and never taking a day of rest. Yet, God tells me I should take a day of rest every week. Looking at what the Bible teaches and what we have seen in the world that day of rest, known as the Sabbath, can have huge implications in our lives. Here are a couple that I see.

The book of Genesis not only teachers us about creation and where we came from but about how God brought order to His creation. This order can be seen in the order of creation and how creation work was divided up. At the same time, God said creation was good, not morally neutral.

Let's take a look at what he did.

The first book of Genesis talks about creation, or the start of it all, in a very different way from other texts. The ancient texts of the time when Genesis was written spoke of the creation as an accident of the gods. Today accounts talk about it being an accident or something that came out of chaos. Yet, in the Bible we see something that starkly contrasts that. Lets take a look at what it says and what that means.

Digging into the details of the first sentence in the first book of the bible brings out details and life that we don't see by reading the sentence in English. There is significance that shouldn't be overlooked and is worthy of geeking out over. When I read:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." -- Genesis 1:1

I read a sentence that is short and to the point. But, when we dig into Hebrew there is so much more there. So, let's dig in.

Digging into controversial issues brings up a number of soul searching questions. Not about the topic at hand but about how we are going to approach the topic and how we are going to look at the information at hand. This is especially true when we deal with things like creation vs. something else, where no person can show you, or will ever be able to show you, definitive proof that any of the theories posed is the truth. So, who wants to ask some tough questions of ourselves???

When most people think of the book of Genesis they think about creation. While, Genesis does teach about creation, creation is about 4% of the book and is only 2 of the 50 chapters. The book of Genesis contains much more than creation. This includes the first time many of the essential teachings of Christianity are taught. So, lets dive into a brief overview of a few of the really important ones.

Genesis is, possibly, the most controversial book of the bible. The way the creation story told in Genesis contradicts popular science is enough to make most people feel weird about it. Even many Christians shy away from Genesis to stay away from this weirdness. Some Christians don't believe the creation story and buy into the ideas of popular science. But, what does the book of Genesis really say? What does science say? Including scientific theories that aren't as popular and scientific knowns that are rarely taught to us in schools.