Welcome your group and open in prayer.
Start out with this question- What’s one of the most beautiful places you’ve ever been and why?
There is indeed still beauty in this world. And yet, how many of us feel that this world of ours is also falling apart? As we begin this series- The story of God, the people He loves and the world he never gave up on, it’s going to be important to keep in mind that God is not surprised with what's going on- and is still in charge. And Old Testament Scholar, Christopher Wright says this is a good time to consider what he calls “the mission of God” --what God is doing for the sake of the whole world, even now. And how maybe we actually play a part in it.
Read Luke 24:13-27. -focusing on vs 25-27, what does this tell us about Jesus and God’s bigger story?
Open to the Bible’s Table of Contents-- as a group, look at the various books, (count them if your group doesn’t already know how many there are) and try to identify the various genres all within this one book we call the Bible.
Before unpacking the Scriptures- Pastor Greg quoted Professor John Walton, that the Bible was written for us but not to us. How does this affect or even change how we read it?
Pastor Greg gave us two important things to take into consideration:
What are some of the questions we should ask ourselves as we read Scripture? Read Genesis 1:1-31
- Who were these verses written to?
- What was their background?
- What questions might they have had?
- What important things did these verses communicate to them?
- What do you think God wanted them to know?
Now, look at these verses again as 21st-century believers- - what questions do we have?
- What things do these verses tell us? What questions perhaps can’t be answered? (Hint, of all the genres within the Bible- it is not a science book)
Genesis 1:2- The Spirit of God “hovered” over the waters. The Israelites would have understood that Hebrew word rachaph as used for an eagle hovering over, fluttering over, watching over her little ones as she waits for them to hatch or to learn how to fly . . . How does knowing this word help illuminate this passage for us?
God wraps up His creation- in verse 31 proclaiming it “tov meod” or very good. Ponder the likes of a perfect God, with standards that far exceed our own, declaring something Very Good! Not just pretty good, or good enough.
It seems clear that our world had a beginning. Logic states that whatever begins to exist has a cause. the universe began to exist, therefore, the universe had a cause. And it was “tov meod” – very good.
Spend the rest of your group time pondering what stuck out at you in this week's message- perhaps how to read Scripture with more insight? The character of God as revealed in the Genesis account? The intricacies of creation? Or how God may use you within His great mission to redeem and restore this "tov meod" world.
"The Bible was written for us, but not to us"
Professor John Walton
Read
Luke 24:13-27
Genesis 1:1-31
Reflect
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, famously admitted the limits of what science had learned: The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen.
If the universe is 15 billion years old, the number of seconds in the history of the universe is about 10 to the 18th power, that’s ten followed by 18 zeroes. The number of subatomic particles in all the matter of the entire universe is estimated at about 10 to the 80th power. The odds of our life-giving universe existing over all the other possibilities is one chance in 10 to the 123rd power.