In the beginning...

Thus starts the enterprise of Reagan’s blog, may God have mercy on all who read…

For those of you who were fans (or victims)of my xanga when I was in high school, perhaps this new blog will translate well.  However, it is my hope that this blog will be more sophisticated and coherent than my blogs of yonder glory days.  My primary reason for starting the blog is credit for my Scriptures I class, but I am hopeful that this can be a useful tool for practicing writing and gathering thoughts and lessons from Genesis through 2 Kings. 

Since this is the first blog, I would like to start by looking at the beginning of Genesis.  In verses 1-3 of chapter 1 it states: “

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “let there be light”; and there was light. (NRSV)

This passage sets a very important precedent for the rest of Genesis and a theme that I see in the entirety of Scripture; namely, that God is active in creation.  There is a great deal that can be said about Genesis 1 defying the creation accounts of the pagan ancient world and establishing there is one supreme God of order and authority, but I want to focus on the simple assertion that God created. God spoke light into existence (and likewise with the rest of creation).  When I look at Genesis, I see this as a reoccurring theme: that when God wants something done in the world, he steps in and initiates the process.  From speaking the world into existence, to prophesying the final redemption of man and the final defeat of the serpent after the Fall, to instructing Noah to build an arc that would allow him to carry on the existence of the human race, to choosing the pagan Abraham (and over time developing his character) to be the father of His people, God actively works in the course of human history.

Much more can said about this, but the one point I want to nail home is that God of Scripture is active within creation.  In the face of the quite common notion that the universe is a closed system with physical laws that cannot be broken, Scripture paints the picture of a God actively working to redeem all that has been broken.  I propose that the whole of Scripture supports this notion, culminating in the work of Christ on the cross. 

This same God that cannot be bound by the laws of physics is still active in the world today.  I believe that we should be greatly encouraged by the idea that the God who created the world is the same God who sent his Holy Spirit to sustain us, teach us how to rightly relate with Him, and do His work in a broken world.  My prayer is that I never take lightly the fact that God was and is still active in the world.

Overly lengthy blog #1,

Completed!