IT ALL BEGINS WITH LIGHT AND DARKNESS

Originally Posted - Saturday, March 15, 2008

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1:2-5

When God created the light, He called it good. The Scripture doesn’t say that He created the darkness. Where did it come from? Some say that when Satan fell from God’s favor before the beginning of time, that he was cast down to the earth and banished from Heaven. Could it be that Satan’s presence here brought the darkness? But if God knew Satan was here, then why would He choose this planet to create a paradise? Perhaps it was the sheer desolation of this place that stirred the heart of restoration within the Creator.

It is interesting to me that God did not choose to eliminate darkness when He created light. Rather, He used it for His purposes – as a time when Creation can rest. He balanced it with the light so that it didn’t dominate the planet as it had done before. This concept of balance in Creation is a key belief in American Indian spirituality. When the balance is compromised, then the earth reacts in order to gain a balanced state again. The dark-dominated fall/winter is pushed out by a light-dominated spring/summer and visa versa.

In Asian culture, a similar belief exists called Yin and Yang. The Yin/Yang theory goes one step further and says that good and evil must also coexist in balance. Can we as believers in Christ open our minds to consider this? There is strong evidence in Scripture of the importance of balance in life. Ecclesiastes 3 is full of statements supporting a balanced approach in everything.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

If there is a time for everything done on the earth, is it possible that it could include allowing a time and place for evil to exist? Only God truly knows. God could easily stamp out the evil on the earth today. It is His love for those who are evil that curbs His wrath. As His followers, it is our role to help Him to promote the good in this world. Whether the purpose of that good is to balance evil or to eradicate it is something I’m going to leave up to Him

NEW BEGINNINGS: REFLECTIONS ON CREATION

Original Post Date: Sunday, March 9, 2008

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

In the past few months, I have had a crisis of faith. I've found myself questioning the things I've been taught as true. I've been frustrated by the corruption of men and the injustice that people have to endure in their lives. Part of this has been precipitated by struggles that individuals in my family have faced in the last year. Another cause has been a major change in my perspectives about church in general and the American church specifically. But that is the topic of an article to be written another day.

Suffice to say that I've found myself needing a fresh start spiritually. In my prayer time, God has shown me that this faith crisis has resulted in me being a completely open slate to Him. I'm ready to hear and see new things. I'm ready for my vision and my worldview to be blown wide open. I want to learn things from God that I've never known before: who He is, what's important to Him, how He works, and what He wants from me.

When one wants a fresh start in life, it's always good to start at the beginning. The Creation account in Genesis seemed a good place to start for a devotional study during this season of my life. Perhaps in the pages of Moses' account, I will find new insight and renewed understanding of myself and the world I live in.

It is comforting to know that our God is the King of fresh starts, insight and understanding. Proverbs 9:10 says "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." I believe I've come to the right place for my new journey. Join me over the next few weeks as we explore how all this began.

For My Writing Group Friends

Contemporary life has too many portals, it seems. Last week I went to see the movie He's Just Not That Into You and one of the women characters was complaining that there were too many techological sources of relationship rejections. If a guy seems to have blown you off, you find yourself checking e-mail, networking website, text messages, voice mail, answering machine, etc. to see if he's called.

I already post blog entries on three networking sites: Facebook, Yahoo! 360 and Plaxo. To create this blog site seems a bit redundant. However, I just found out on Monday that all my new creative writing group friends are on here. It is in honor of them that I have set myself up with an account.

Since most of my new friends have not known me until now, I am going to re-post entry by entry last year's blog series entitled Ramblings on How We Got Here. It was my first visit to the writers' group that finally pushed me over the edge to compile this blog series into a book and have it printed. Nearly 100 copies of the book have been given out to friends and family across the globe.

To all my new writer's group friends, I hope you'll enjoy the blog and I look forward to reading all of yours.