Creation - Morning Devotion on June 12, 2024

Chapter One - Creation

"And let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the each. And it was so…"
Genesis 1:1.5

In The Beginning

Genesis 1.1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the fine of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

God created the world solely for the purpose of true love. We have to bear in our minds at all times that the first reason God created the universe was for the sake of true love itself. We observe that, whether it be animal kingdom or plant kingdom or even the mineral kingdom, everything in creation is in pairs. Everything was created centering on the idea of love.

Blessing and Resurrection
March 31. 1991

Before God created man and the universe, He was all alone, with no one to care for except Himself However, the very Instant that God initiated creation, His full concept of life emerged. God now lives for His counterpart -- not for Himself.

What is creation? Creation means nothing more than the Creator, God, projecting Himself into a substantial form. He made Himself incarnate symbolically in the universe, and He made Himself incarnate directly in man. When the spirit takes form, this is creation. God invested Himself in the creation. God's investment of energy is the creation.

God invested all of Himself in His creation. He did not reserve even one ounce of energy. Creation was His total labor, His total effort of giving all of Himself. When God put His entire heart and soul into the creation of His object, He was investing 100 percent of Himself. Only in this way could He create His second self, the visible God.

God's Hope .for Man
October 20, 1973

Genesis 1:3 And God said, "Let their be light"; and there was light.

Genesis 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

The only thing that Almighty God needs is love. In order to attain that love, He requires an object. Thus He created the object of true love. Think about how serious God was when He created man and woman. Was He just entertaining Himself by creating, like enjoying a hobby? No, God was creating people who would become equal partners with Him in true love. Would that urge of God to share His love be less than or stronger than men and women yearning for each other?

It is even stronger. In human society, men have sometimes challenged one another to duels to the death in order to obtain the love of a woman. Think about how much more serious is God's determination.

God is the root of all love; that root is therefore most dedicated and serious. In common Christian understanding, God simply said one day "Let there be light," and snap! It happened while God lay back and rested. Then He said. "Let the oceans arise," and so on, and the rest of creation happened without much ado. But God invested every ounce of His great energy -- every hit of Himself was poured into the act of creating this universe.

Children's' Day 1988 hum the Viewpoint of the Providence
November 8, 1988

Day always follows the night, and even though no one really loves the darkness of night they can still look beyond that darkness to the new day coning. Hope overcomes the darkness.

Were you born in despair and darkness, or were you born with hope, a goal and a purpose? Of course, a new baby would have no idea how and why he was born, but the family's friends and relatives surround that baby with their hope. The baby's father and mother feel hope through their child, and his whole family hopes that some day he will become a good and fulfilled person.

This is why the birth of a child is an event of joy and celebration. If people feel that way about the birth of a new child, then God would certainly feel the same When Adam and Eve were created; they were surrounded by the utmost hope and joy. All the things of creation gave their entire attention to them, including God, looking forward to the day of their accomplishment.

God is infinite in ideal and capacity, and the more broadly God thinks, the more hope He bestows upon His son and daughter. If a parent's vision is big, then certainly his expectation of his child is also big. God's hope in Adam was certainly infinite. Such hope is not fleeting; the expectation grows larger with time.

When God created Adam and Eve, this universe was filled with hope and all things of creation were celebrating in joy, knowing that their master was finally born. Adam and Eve were the focal point of hope for heaven and God and all things of creation, the very personification of hope.

After truly becoming the masters of the creation and fulfilling that goal and expectation as true children of God, what would they do? The day of their accomplishment would be the first time God could really have joy. That would be the first time He could say He was happy When God can announce that He is happy, it will not mark just His happiness but human happiness and the elation of all things of creation. If you had joy would you like to keep it just to yourself or would you like to share it with friends and relatives? Joy wants to he celebrated because joy belongs to all.

Everyone wants to have hope, but does harboring hope in itself automatically engender joy? The significant thing is this -- when you have hope and want to accomplish something, you don't feel joy first, but pain and suffering. Merely attempting to accomplish that hope is not going to bring joy to anyone. If all you had to do was sit down and wait for hope to become a reality, life would be very easy.

The greater the hope or sunshine, the greater are the obstacles or darkness to overcome. You think of sunshine as being bright because you already recognize the darkness. Because of darkness you can appreciate brightness.

All Things Depend on Us
January 8, 1978

Genesis 1:6 And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."

Genesis 7 And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.

Genesis 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning,
a second day.

According to the Genesis account of the creation of the universe, amidst the primordial state of chaos, void and darkness, God created light. God next separated the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament. He then divided the land from the ocean; created plants, fish, birds and mammals; and finally made humankind. All of this took a period of six "days." From this account, we can surmise that the process of creating the universe took some period of time represented by six days.

The process of creation recorded in the Bible bears some resemblance to the theory of the origin and formation of the universe as described by modern science. According to modern science, the universe began as expanding plasma. Out of the chaos and void of space, the heavenly bodies formed and gave light.

As the molten earth cooled, volcanic eruptions filled the sky with a firmament of water. The land rose and the water fell as rain, creating the continents and oceans. Next, the lower plants and animals came into being. Then came fish, birds, mammals, and finally humankind, in that order. The age of the earth is calculated to be several billion years. Considering that the account of the creation of the universe recorded in the Bible thousands of years ago nearly coincides with the findings of modern scientific research, we are reassured that this biblical record must be a revelation from God.

The universe did not suddenly spring forth complete, without regard to the flow of time In fact, its origin and development took an enormous length of time. Therefore, the biblical period of six days for the completion of the universe is not to be reckoned by the number of literal sunrises and sunsets. It symbolizes six ordered periods of time in the creation process.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
Part I, Chapter 1, Section 5

Genesis 1:9 And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear" And it was so.

Genesis 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

It is awesome to see what the earth can do. The earth is the source of thousands of different miracles -- trees, flowers, fruits and all manner of infinite beauty. A seed may have the hidden potential for making red flowers, but a seed alone means nothing; it must he supported by the earth. The earth is the source of wonder and beauty, but the spectacular things which spring from this earth must have some source of Infinite energy where all the wonders and beauty of life originate. That source is certainly God.

Our Family in the Light of the Dispensation
March 6, 1977

As you know, only one third of the surface of the globe is land; two thirds are ocean. Therefore, without knowing the ocean, we can never have dominion over the entire globe. It is just incredible to think that the ocean is not dead, that it is alive and moving; not only moving by itself, but moving in conjunction with the land masses and the solar system's sun and moon. It's so amazing to comprehend the beauties and wonders that are hidden within the ocean. More than anything else in all of God's creation, the ocean is most sensitive to all the movements of the universe and the weather.

Once you understand the sensitivity of the ocean, have dialogue with it, and cope with it, you'll understand the most intricate of God's creations. By doing so, you can understand about land masses in no time. The ocean is not only sensitive, but is also very changeable. Therefore, to know how to cope with this changeable situation provides us the best understanding of ourselves and nature. In order for us to mold our God-centered character, we must know how to deal with the ocean, how to become subject over it, and how to have dominion over God-given creation.

Leaders' Conference
June 17, 1983

Genesis 1:11 And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth." And it was so.

Genesis 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

When you eat your food, you should think, "I eat for the purpose of consummating love -- unique, absolute, unchanging, and eternal love." Those who eat with that kind of attitude will never have stomach problems or indigestion because everything they eat will cooperate with their body. But if you do not have that attitude, food will have a protest demonstration against you when it gets into your stomach!

Look at the universe from this point of view Look at the trees, the flowers, birds, the ocean and everything from the point of view of the love of God. When you go on a picnic, you can lean against a giant tree and say, "You have been waiting for me, haven't you?" The tree will giggle, "I have been waiting for you to lean against me for so long! I love you!" That tree has wanted to receive unique, absolute, unchanging and eternal love from you. As a representative of that love, you will be loved and appreciated by all the things of nature, including the mountains and the ocean.

The Ideal World of Adam
June 1, 1982

Let There Be Light

Genesis 1:14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,

Genesis 15 and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.

We can ask whether God wanted to see a day of sorrow or day of happiness when He created heaven and earth, and the answer obviously is that God wanted to see a day of joy. As you read Genesis you will se that God finished each day's creation by saying it was good. On the final day God created man, and then He said it was very good. God's saying it was good means that it was in a realm beyond the realm of sorrow.

Creation was initiated in joy, and God created in joy. Indeed, God has been looking forward to the day of His fulfillment in joy, eager to see His creation grow in joy and be consummated in joy.

Sorrow and Tears
March I, 1978

In the Western way of life, you write horizontally from left to right, but in the Orient we write vertically, as though from heaven to earth. The two different directions must meet. Have you ever thought about why you write from left to right instead of right to left? Since the left represents darkness, it is as though you are going from the darkness on the left to the light on the right. God is the origin of light and He represents the upper portion, so the Oriental way of writing from top to bottom represents light coming down to the darkness.

Left represents the West and right represents East where the sun rises. In every way these two different ways of writing symbolize the meeting of light and darkness. Once you reach the East you return to the West, completing a circle. Also, light comes down from God to mankind, and then mankind returns the glory to God. This give and take makes a big circle.

Mainstream of the Dispensation of God
November 19, 1978

Genesis 1:20 And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens."

Genesis 1:21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them. saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply on the earth."

The mineral, plant and animal kingdoms all have the goal of reaching their center, which is the point of human true love. They want to be involved in that. All creation is formed in the pair system for the purpose of the fulfillment of love. Each being yearns to reach a higher and higher level of true love. Since human true love is closer to God, all other creatures want to be part of the human body even willing to be eaten for that purpose.

Among the ocean creatures, the whale is the largest and closest to the human race. They are mammals, giving birth to live babies. The smallest creatures are eaten by larger fish, which in turn are eaten by larger fish, all the way up to the whale which takes everything into its gigantic mouth. Within the animal kingdom, insects and worms are consumed by little birds. Small birds are eaten by larger creatures. When those creatures are eaten by human beings, the cells of the birds are eaten, too.

In this manner, the minuscule organism on the bottom of the sea can ultimately become a part of the cells and body of a man or woman. Those creatures welcome the opportunity to become part of a human cell because they can thereby become recipients of true love. Suppose a tiny creature from the ocean bottom becomes a part of your flesh. It can say proudly, "Look at me. Now I'm a human cell!"

When you look at all the things of creation, including the trees, grasses, flowers, birds and animals, think about the fact that they yearn to come closer to the love of God by way of human beings. You must be the mediator between them and God.

Wake up America!
June 12, 1988

Genesis 1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Genesis 1:24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.- And it was so.

Genesis 1:25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.