This summer for my youth internship I’m going to be teaching the Sunday morning teen class. My topic? Genesis 1-11

Sounds crazy, but I really felt a pull towards going back to the beginning. It probably has something to do with the fact that I was studying the Old Testament a lot. But nevertheless, I am totally excited about walking the kids through the first eleven chapters of the Bible.

Genesis is all about beginnings.

We all have our beginning sentence in describing our own spiritual journey. “In the beginning _______” For instance, “In the beginning there was my family,” or maybe, “In the beginning there was my mentor.” These are the starting points which mark the trailhead of our spiritual journey. These words recall the earliest memory of a relationship with God.

If Scripture is viewed as a spiritual journey of the world, then Genesis 1:1 shows the starting point of that journey: “In the beginning God created…”

That’s it. That is the foundation for everything we believe. That is the heart of our faith. If either one of those two words (God / created) are incorrect, then our entire belief system is nullified. Genesis 1:1 is the pivotal point on which everything else depends.

Those few words also give us much of the information we have about God:
-God was before the beginning
-God chose to create
-God is creative
-We, the creation, are not God
-We did not make God
-The fact that the creation was no accident means that God has a purpose in mind
-God is powerful
-God is intelligent
-God is relational
-God exists apart from creation
-God is universal

This is the first impression we get from God, and he continues to live up to that impression. That the Bible begins with Genesis and not Exodus speaks volumes to the universality of God and his creative/redemptive interaction with the world, not just specific individuals and nations.

These are just some thoughts I wanted to get down in writing so I wouldn’t lose them and so I could get some feedback maybe.