PART 1: In The Beginning

When my son came home from kindergarten one day, he exclaimed that we came from apes. He learned it just that day. They didn’t waste any time teaching evolution! He had half-day Kindergarten and he joined me one day a week at Bible Study Fellowship where they were studying Genesis and the story of God’s creation. So, I reminded him we just learned a couple weeks before that we were created in God’s image. I asked him if they told him this was just a theory, and I explained that theories are beliefs not based on fact. I asked him if He knew what an image was. He did not, so I told him to look in a mirror and explained that what he saw was not himself, but an image of himself. I then asked him if he thought that when God looks in the mirror, He sees a gorilla. Micah giggled and said, “No, Mommy!” as he understood what I meant. We talked about how worldly science does not like to admit that God created us in His image, so they made that up about us coming from apes. It was a great start to teaching him discernment about what he was taught in school. 

The material in the manual for this chapter talks about God’s creation of everything in the world including people.  

Fact – God only has a “Plan A”, He knew us before the creation and every day was written in His book before one of them came to be.  

How can we make sense of the mess of this broken world; people’s poor or evil choices; people born with defects?  

If our God sovereign, and He is, we must believe that He has a plan to use every part of our mess to bring Himself glory. 

We also must believe His promise that He works everything together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28).  

He also uses all of the difficulties in our lives, regardless of their sources, to discipline us and grow our character. 

This information is foundational to our belief systems and the rest of this course.  

It interrupts beliefs that we have carried since our childhood that are not based on the truth of His Word or His character.  

When we earthlings find ourselves in the middle of tragedy, how can we reconcile that with a good and benevolent Creator if we do not firmly believe He has a purpose and that He will redeem everything, most of all, us? 

REMINDER: Please write in your manual or on a notecard or paper any comments or questions you would like to discuss…Your facilitator will give you time to cover that later in class or by email 

With that, Let us begin discussing what it means to be made in His image.  

This gives us the ability to relate to our Almighty God more than we used to think we could, especially in our character and emotions.  

He gave us His instructions for how we are to live according to His purposes.  

Though His instructions are commands, we are free to choose obedience or rebellion.  

The important factor is that all His instructions are given out of love for us and for our protection.  

This becomes increasingly clear as we peer into God’s intricate design of our bodies.