God rested on the seventh day not because of exhaustion but in order to take pleasure in the creation.
He gave us taste buds, then filled the world with incredible flavors like chocolate and cinnamon and all the other spices. He gave us eyes to perceive color and then filled the world with a rainbow of shades. He gave us sensitive ears and then filled the world with rhythms and music. Your capacity for enjoyment is evidence of God’s love for you. He could have made the world tasteless, colorless, and silent. The Bible says that God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” He didn’t have to do it, but he did, because He loves us.
Grace is the first ingredient necessary for growing up in the image of God. Grace is unbroken, uninterrupted, unearned, accepting relationship. It is the kind of relationship humanity had with God in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were loved and provided for. They knew God’s truth, and they had perfect freedom to do God’s will. In short, they were secure; they had no shame and anxiety. They could be who they truly were.
You reflect a part of God that no one else can reflect. It is part of the mystery of God’s design of your life that reflects back to Him the image of delight. As His keep-sake, you bring to the earth a poetic message from heaven, a “word” sent from His mouth that will not return to Him void. You will accomplish the very thing God has wonderfully chosen for you to accomplish. The Master Artist has wasted not even one stroke with your life. So don’t judge the canvas before the art is finished.
God is not only infinite, but personal, having an intellect, will and emotions. He created us (humankind), though we are finite, in His image as personal beings. This means that we are capable of communication and relationship with God. He created us to KNOW HIM!! Yet it will take our whole lifetimes plus all of eternity to understand not even one-zillionth of one percent of who our great God is!
When God said ‘Let there be …’ He knew things would go badly wrong, but He left a door open to come in and put things right. It involved the Lamb being slain in some mysterious sense. The Saviour was the Creator. He made a world in which to be crucified. This planet was to be the scene of everlasting redemption. It was founded for salvation, bearing the mark of the Cross
The Word through whom all things were made is now the Word through whom all things are remade.
Anytime you get rid of the designer, the creator, if you don’t have a designer, you can’t have design. If there’s no such thing as design, there’s no such thing as purpose. If there’s no such thing as purpose, there’s no such thing as destiny. Once you destroy the concept of a destiny, you’ve destroyed the concept of accountability, which is at the root of the fear of God. We live in a culture that is absent of the fear of God. And we don’t get it back by threatening people.