Redeeming God

Warning: This episode of the One Verse Podcast is rated PG-13. It has content which might be inappropriate for children. How inappropriate? Well, just look at the title of this episode to see. And no … I am not going into graphic detail. I just use the word a few times. But if there are kids around, and you have no interest in explaining to them what that word means, you may want to listen to this podcast later. However, I bet you might be interested in hearing what I have to say about it from Genesis 1, so if the kids are out of listening range, start listening!

In the previous study of Genesis 1:26, we began to look at what it means to be made in the image of God. I said there were four contextual keys to what it means to be made in the image of God. This study looks at the final three contextual keys.

What does Genesis 1:26 mean when it talks about being made in the image of God? Does it mean that we have intellect, emotions, and will? Or maybe, just as God is a Trinity, is it referring to our three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Or does it refer to something else entirely? I go with the last option: something else entirely. We begin to see what that something else is in this episode of the One Verse Podcast as we begin to look at the image of God in Genesis 1:26.

In this episode of the One Verse Podcast, we see that as followers of Jesus, we should not be condemning the environmentalists, but should actually be leading the way in showing this world how to take care of this earth. Listen to the episode to learn more.

Have you ever wondered why God uses plural pronouns for Himself in Genesis 1:26? This podcast takes a look at this verse, summarizes the eight common views on these plural pronouns, and then proposes a ninth view for your consideration.

While I do not believe that Genesis 1 speaks directly against the theory of evolution, I do believe that the theology behind the theory of evolution has been around a lot longer than the theory itself, and Genesis 1:24-25 speaks directly against some of these theological ideas.

Is there something in your life you are ashamed of? If you are like most people, there are probably a multitude of such things. Maybe it is something evil that happened to you when you were younger. Maybe it is some addiction or temptation which you fall to almost every day. In this episode of the One Verse Podcast, we see that God can bring glory out of even these evil and horrible things. He does this through redemption.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:20-23 we look at numerous items related to the creation of the fish and the birds. We focus specifically on the description of fish as having nephesh, a soul, and what this means for our theology and understanding of the human soul.

This is Part 3 of our study in Genesis 1:14-19. This episode continues with the central theme of Genesis 1 being a polemic against the surrounding religions in the days of Moses. Specifically, we see the seven ways that Moses differentiates Yahweh from the deities of the surrounding nations and cultures.

When Moses sets out to differentiate the worship of Yahweh from the various religions of his day, he specifically targeted the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. This is what we see in this podcast episode of Genesis 1:14-19.

In this episode of the One Verse Podcast, you will see why we cannot read Genesis 1:14-19 as a scientific explanation of how the sun, moon, and stars came to be, and you will also learn from the text what three purposes these celestial lights serve in God’s creation.

If you lived in biblical times, you might think that when your crops failed, the gods were angry at you, and that to appease their wrath, you needed to offer a blood sacrifice. People do not do this today, but many of us still think that when bad things happen, it is because God has neglected us, or is out to punish us for something. So we pray, and tithe, and cry out to God for forgiveness and mercy. Strangely, this response is not that much different from the ancient pagan religious practice of offering blood sacrifices. But in Genesis 1:11-13, we see that this is not what God wants or desires.

A scientific reading of Genesis 1:11-12 leads to some very strange conclusions about the world God made. If there was no death of any kind before the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, then we cannot say that God's creation was good, for it had a big flaw which would lead to oceans of bunnies and mountains of spiders. What? Yes, listen to this episode of the One Verse Podcast on Genesis 1:11-12 to learn more.

Are you scared to stand before God in judgment? Lots of people are, but we’re going to today from Genesis 1:10 that you have nothing to fear from the judgment of God. You will see this from how God names the earth and the seas, and you will also see that no matter what God does, He does it always and only for your good.

Have you ever tried to push back water so that you create a little space of dry ground in the midst of the water? It’s pretty much impossible, isn’t it? Yet we see God doing this in Genesis 1:9, the text we are looking at today, and we are going to see why Moses wrote about the water and the dry ground this way.

Genesis 1:6-8 contains the description of the second day of creation. On this day, God separates the waters above from the waters below. This podcast episode shows how the Egyptian creation myths illuminate our understanding of what this text says.

Do you think the world was created over millions and billions of years? Or do you think that everything that exists was created in six 24-hour periods? In this episode of the One Verse podcast, we will look at Genesis 1:5 and I will share my view on the days of creation.

This episode of the One Verse podcast looks at Genesis 1:4 and shows you how God separated light from darkness on the first day of creation. From this we will draw some tentative conclusions about how you and I can separate from darkness without falling into the trap of religion.

Genesis 1:3 is packed full of truth and insight into something very important. This text provides a clear contrast for us. It contrasts how religion tells us to deal with evil in the world, and how God deals with evil in the world. God’s way leads to light and redemption, but the religious way leads only to more darkness and evil.

This episode of the One Verse podcast looks at Genesis 1:2, where we see that although the text contains numerous dark and ominous elements, it ultimately points us to hope that our God is different than the gods of other religions.