Remember, look for the bonus video to this episode uploaded by the end of each week. One of the topics we will discuss is:
The word “Lord” is defined in the dictionary as “One having power and authority over others, a ruler by preeminence (highest authority) to whom service and obedience are due.”
Who is your Lord?
If you haven’t accepted Jesus as Lord, or wonder if He is, then I would suggest you do that immediately. God has made this easy, just ask Him to be the Lord of your life by placing your faith in Jesus Christ.
If Jesus is your Savior, I want to challenge you to consider the definition of “Lord” again. “One having power and authority over others, a ruler by preeminence (highest authority) to whom service and obedience are due.”
As you consider that, ask yourself these questions:
When we are done reading, we must ask these questions:
The greatest breakthroughs occur when we understand the context, read Scripture, and then conduct a process of inductive study that draws certain conclusions from the information and leads me to discover application.
Here is a summary of the process:
SO, LET’S PUT IT TO PRACTICE.
Let’s pray – Lord, your Word teaches that you will lead us into all truth. I pray that you do just that. Amen.
Today we find ourselves in the 1st era of Beginnings. This is era 1, Episode 1, and we will read about The Beginning of Creation from the Book of Genesis.
The book of Genesis was written by Moses.
The original Audience was the people of Israel.
The purpose of his writing was to record God’s creation of the world and his desire to have people worship him.
The date that it was written was approximately 1450 – 1410 BC.
It was written in the wilderness during Israel’s wanderings, somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula.
The Scripture we will read today is Genesis chapter 1: verses 1 through chapter 2: verse 4.
Let’s read an excerpt from the Bible, NLT:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.[a] 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”
And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.”
And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. 12 The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. 16 God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, 18 to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
23 And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened. 25 God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings[b] in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth,[c] and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings[d] in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
2 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested[e] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
NLT
What are the main points of this text?
Discussion / Interpretation:
As we prepare to wrap up this episode, we can see a couple of applications that we can consider. Applications are best understood by using “I will” statements.
So will you?
Thank you for being a part of this Scott, and we want to thank you for listening. We look forward to our next meeting together in episode 2, as we continue our study of the 1st era “Beginnings.”
Thank you and God bless.
Bonus video discussion, look for the bonus episode later this week!
Let’s talk about Evolution.
Believers believe by faith, and therefore should not feel as though it is our responsibility to prove it. If someone says it wrong, then it is on them to prove that. Macroevolution (Major Change) of course would not do well to support a literal meaning because it is required for the theory of evolution to explain the origin of life, whereas the literal meaning does less harm to microevolution (Minor Change). Microevolution in and of itself can be considered a fact as it is clearly a feature of living organisms, for example, plants and animals can be bred to develop various characteristics.
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Voiceover
You are listening to the Bible breakthrough with Pastor David Engman at Scott Brekke. In this study, we will break down the Bible from B.C. to A.D. chronologically while offering historical context and real-life application for today. This series is brought to you by the Breakthrough Media Network.
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Pastor Dave
Hi, my name is Pastor Dave Engman, and this is Scott Brekke, and we want to welcome you to the Bible Breakthrough and we want to thank you for joining us. This is our first video going out, and we want you to know that we're excited and we just want to have fun and we hope you have fun. We are not polished professionals.
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Pastor Dave
This is not the world that we typically live. In, but this is the world we've been called into by God. So ultimately, our goal is to lead you into a deeper, more intimate relationship with our savior, Jesus.
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Scott Brekke
Have you ever wondered how our world came to be? You're going to find that out right here. So please look for our bonus video to this episode as we discuss various topics that come up because of the scripture we cover today. Also, the show notes will be linked in the description.
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Pastor Dave
All right. So, scripture that we're going to read today is Genesis chapter one, verse one through 23. There are three questions, and I'd like you to ask yourself as you listen; what is the word saying? What does it mean? And how can I apply what I'm learning in my life?
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Scott Brekke
So, let's start out with prayer. So, Lord, your word teaches us that you will lead us into all truth. And Lord, I'm praying that you would do that for me and Dave and those who listen, Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Dave
Amen. I felt awkward because I was like my eyes closed and I'm like, Wait a minute. So anyway, let's open up the Bible. Let's read the passage, shall we? Genesis one verse one through 23. Scott, would you read that?
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Scott Brekke
Yes, sir. All right.
Page Break
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Scott Brekke
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the deep waters, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then He separated the light from the darkness.
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Scott Brekke
God called the light day and the darkness night and evening passed and morning came marking the first day. Then God said, “Let there be space between the waters to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” And that is what happened. God made the space to separate the waters of the Earth from the waters of the heavens.
00;03;05;10 - 00;03;30;19
Scott Brekke
God called the space sky. And evening, past and morning came marking the second day. Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place. So dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened God called the dry ground land and the waters sea. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation.
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Scott Brekke
Every sort of seed-bearing plant and trees that grow seed bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. The land produce vegetation, all sorts of seed-bearing plants and trees with seed bearing fruit. Their seeds produce plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
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Scott Brekke
And evening passed, and morning came marking the third day Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And this is what happened. God made two great lights, the larger one, the govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night.
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Scott Brekke
He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And evening passed, and the morning came marking the fourth day. Then God said, Let the water swarm with fish and other life let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.
00;04;41;25 - 00;05;06;14
Scott Brekke
So, God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water and every sort of bird, each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth. And evening passed, and morning came marking the fifth day.
Page Break
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Pastor Dave
Well, done. And you got through that unscathed. So, one of the things that we, you know, that we have been talking about is as we prepare for this is the idea that an old guy named Howard Hendricks used to teach about observation, interpretation and application as being three components of reading and understanding the Bible. Of course, if we don't apply things,
00;05;41;29 - 00;06;04;23
Pastor Dave
what's the point? You can get all sorts of knowledge. But so, you know, when we read the Bible, really what we're doing, what Scott just did here is he just observed what the words said, that’s the observation piece. And then we move into something that actually happens as we observe, oftentimes, naturally. And that's the place where we're interpreting what we're reading.
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Pastor Dave
So, as you are reading something and you know, if something stands out and you kind of get caught up on that, you know, your mind starts working automatically. You start to think about it. What does it mean? And that's really that second part about interpretation, so to speak, it's just taking what we're seeing and or hearing in this case and it's asking ourselves, what does it mean?
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Pastor Dave
And then, of course, we talked about the third one application. So, as you were reading, Scott, I certainly started to recognize things that were kind of crawling off the page. First of all, I notice that God created, and we've only covered the first five days here, but he created everything in a very precise order And, you know, I was thinking, why did God create things in such precision and in such order?
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Pastor Dave
I mean, if he could do anything he did, even on just one day. Right. God could just simply think about it and say it, and it's done. Why go through the process? So, what are your thoughts about why God went through the process of order of creation the way he did?
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Scott Brekke
Well, I think it's a little bit for us to be able to see this. So, he yeah, he could have easily just been like, BOOM, it's all created. But I think that it's pretty actually really neat for me to be able to read each one of these. I mean, look, we get to dive into how God specifically created everything with a purpose and in order, right?
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Scott Brekke
So, he starts with creating what we experience, what we're on, and we're on the earth. He created the heavens and the earth. So, I just think it's awesome we get to be able to see all these different things take place. It's like I see this, like these different layers starting to come through.
Page Break
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Pastor Dave
So, what you're saying there is he did it for a benefit.
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Scott Brekke
Yeah.
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Pastor Dave
Because he clearly could have just.
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Scott Brekke
He could have bypassed everything.
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Pastor Dave
Done and that's how it was and. Right. But he did it for our benefit. So, what's interesting to me, when I look at the very first verse of the Bible, it says, “In the beginning…”
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Scott Brekke
Uh, huh.
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Pastor Dave
Beginning, the word beginning means that there was a start. Right? What came before that?
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Scott Brekke
Yeah. Well, it's a little while, obviously, we know that. All right. If there's a start of something we know that who's also making this is God? So obviously God is before beginning, but and I've said this before, that it's sometimes a little bit hard to know what was there beforehand because, you know, I am a created being.
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Scott Brekke
We experience everything that's created, right? Everything listed in these first five days. We've experienced all these things, the animals, the ground, the waters, the moon, the sun, all these different things. So, it's a little bit hard for me to be able to say, all right, well, what was before the beginning? Well, I don't know much other than God.
Page Break
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Pastor Dave
But here's the point. Obviously, God had to have existed before the beginning.
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Scott Brekke
Yeah, he did, right? Yes.
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Pastor Dave
And the next verse or the next words it says is this God created. So, I was thinking of this is, you know, we got this wonderful sign here if you're watching, anyway, as opposed to listening. Scott made this he's very handy, loves working with wood, and it's beautiful. You did a great job. Scott, let me ask you a question.
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Pastor Dave
Before you did that. Yeah, right. Yeah. Think about it. Yeah. Plan it out. Yeah. I mean, before you created something, you had a plan before you created that, you had some kind of ideas, some kind of plan, and you apparently knew how to do it. Mm hmm. And you did it right Yeah, but it didn't happen just like that, did it?
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Scott Brekke
No, it was a process of me thinking. Oh, all right, where is this going to? I mean, it's ultimately something that hangs on the wall. So, it needs hangers in the back, and it has to fit the space. And, yeah, I mean, there is a purpose for it.
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Pastor Dave
You had to envision it. Yeah. You had an idea once. Right. And then you're like, I think I could do this for Breakthrough, you know? And then you knew you needed a saw, and you needed wood, and you got old barn wood, and then you pulled out whatever that jigsaw thingy was and carved out the… my point to all of that is this, God created in the beginning.
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Pastor Dave
We know that there was a start. And then we also know God created. And we also know that since there was a start in that God was going to create, he obviously was there prior, and he obviously had a plan. Yep. Right? I mean, isn’t that reassuring to know that the God of the universe, just didn't on a whim, you know, create.
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Pastor Dave
No, he has, obviously has a plan. And, you know, he also created us.
Page Break
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Scott Brekke
Yeah. We'll get on the next one. But that's exactly what I was going to say. Well, all right. If he created all this, I know that I'm a created being. We're going to see that in a few of the chapters coming up. But so that would mean that we all have purpose, right? If God creates everything, even the
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Scott Brekke
Water, I mean there's a purpose for water. There's a purpose for all these plants and trees and seed-bearing things like, man, how much greater am I as being a human being? So, there's there has to be purpose. There has to be purpose in my life.
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Pastor Dave
Well, absolutely. We'll talk a little bit more about that in the next episode. Here's what I want to draw in now.
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Scott Brekke
Yeah.
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Pastor Dave
We know number one, we recognize, at least from what I'm seeing, we recognize there was a start and obviously there had to be something prior to the start. We also recognize that God's creative we also recognize God created. And not only is he creative, but he created. Right. All right.
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Pastor Dave
Then God said, starting in verse two, then God said, “Let there be light.” and there was light. So how did God, based upon what you just read, how did God create the heavens and the earth? And all five days that we've read, how did he do it?
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Scott Brekke
Well, each verse, simply look at it. Three says, “then he said,” six says, “then he said,” nine says, :then he said,” right, everything that was created was created by and through the spoken word of God, which is like, wow, is there anything that he cannot do? Well, if he can create the heavens and the earth and everything we see by his spoken word, man, there's really anything that comes after this,
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Scott Brekke
It's not impossible for God. Like, what do you, I mean, what do you think?
Page Break
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Pastor Dave
Well, I think when I think of this, then God said and then it happened. I think, yeah, there is power, must be authority that accompanies that power. To be able to do that. And you know, obviously as we go through the Bible and if you've read the Bible, you know, God, even if you go into Matthew 28, the great commission, toward the end there verse 19, God said that, you know, Jesus said that all authority had been given to him and then He delegates that authority.
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Pastor Dave
So, we're pretty unique because he doesn't say that about the animals or, or the fish or anything else. Right. But God's words are powerful and so are yours and mine. Yeah. Our words are powerful. Okay, and we know that now. So as far as the rest of this stuff is concerned, I mean, when we get to the next episode where we're talking about God creating the animals and then man, when we get there, I think a light bulb gets to kind of come on, at least it does for me as it pertains to the precision of order and why he did it the way he did it.
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Pastor Dave
Um, is there anything else that stands out to you here in this scripture?
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Scott Brekke
Well, I know we hadn't talked about this, but just like okay, everybody seems like you see the sun, you see the moon like those are always wonders to me. Like, look how huge and awesome those are, right? You can’t tell me that not one person has like seen that at, like, a beautiful sunset or at the night you look up at the stars and you see the moon, and you’re just like, wow, like, that's amazing
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Scott Brekke
to me! Like, that just spurs wonder, man. You mean I can actually know the God that created all of that, you know? And it simply says, right here, right? God made two great lights. And it makes sense. One, to govern the day, the sun, and one the government govern the night, the moon. And this is kind of neat, too.
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Scott Brekke
He just simply throws this out there. It doesn't go in any detail. He just says, oh, by the way, it's like he dropped the mike. Yeah, I made the stars. You know, I made everything that you see. So, I don't know. I just think it's kind of cool. Like, I look at the sun and I look at the moon and stars like, man, that's really beautiful.
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Scott Brekke
You know, that's something that, that only I think God can create.
Page Break
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Pastor Dave
So, here's, here's I think this might, and we're going to get into the application component in a minute, but this just hit me. This might be part of the application. If God said something and it happened every time. Then when you read the Bible and discover the promises that God has made.
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Scott Brekke
Yeah.
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Pastor Dave
Well then that's going to happen too, the promises are found or contained within the Word of God. We got to go to the Word of God. We got to read the Word of God because it's in the Word of God that we’ll discover the promises that God has given to us. And if he if He said it and it happened and He's saying it, it will happen.
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Pastor Dave
And I think that might be a part of this application piece, right?
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Scott Brekke
Absolutely.
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Pastor Dave
I'm really convinced that, you know, as we are thinking through application, that has to be right there at the top, can you say that you saw anything else in regards to application here?
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Scott Brekke
Well, I mean, we see God creating a lot of things. And I as we read through that, I struggled with. All right. What in the world am I supposed to take from these verses that I can apply to my life? And it was, you know, it was hard. I mean, it was hard. I'll be honest. It was hard.
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Scott Brekke
I couldn't really come up with a great thing or say, yep, I'm going to take this and apply it to my life. But I think the point that just starts to drive home for me is I literally get to know the God who made all these things. I get to know him and explains how some of it was done.
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Scott Brekke
Right?
Page Break
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Pastor Dave
Exactly. And I think you're right about that. What we're not seeing commands in here. Yeah. Which typically would be, you know, application points in a lot of people's lives, including ours. Right? There isn’t commands, what we're reading about is the record of history and we're reading about the beginning of history. And I think God wanted us to know what his story,
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Pastor Dave
I like that because I can link that right up to history. Yeah. This is about his story. Yeah. And if you remember from our introduction to the era, I said this is the greatest story ever told. Yeah. It's his story that we're reading. And he wanted us to know the history of how it happened. And it's up to us to make a decision, to choose, really.
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Pastor Dave
We have to make a decision and choose to have faith and believe. Those two words are simultaneous. I mean, they're hand in hand having faith is simply believing something. And, you know, God put it in our heart. He wrote the knowledge of himself in every human, not every Christian, he wrote it in every human. Every human has a knowledge written within their heart,
00;18;41;06 - 00;18;50;27
Pastor Dave
as the Bible teaches us that God exists, and either you accept that or you simply deny that which a good portion of the world has done.
00;18;51;02 - 00;18;51;11
Scott Brekke
Yeah.
00;18;51;27 - 00;19;23;24
Pastor Dave
So, we're praying for you, we are praying for you. The application would be that maybe it's not a command to do something, but it's a revelation of truth in the scripture we read about. A doubt you may have had regarding creation, regarding evolution, you know, regarding the gap theory. These are all topics that we're going to discuss down the line in some of our bonus videos.
00;19;24;08 - 00;19;36;10
Scott Brekke
All right. So, I'm going to turn the question to you. Okay. So, what about you? All right. What can you apply to your life that we read about today in our Scripture?
00;19;37;00 - 00;19;51;16
Pastor Dave
Um, I appreciate that question. And look, if, if you're struggling with, you know, anything regarding the Bible, regarding what we cover today, I just want you to know it's all right to struggle. We all struggle.
Page Break
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Scott Brekke
Yeah.
00;19;52;06 - 00;20;01;02
Pastor Dave
There isn't anybody that hasn't wrestled with some of these thoughts about, you know, how the beginning occurred and God and so forth.
00;20;03;09 - 00;20;19;01
Pastor Dave
So anyway, I want you to know you're not alone. And I want you to know it's all right to struggle. And I also want you to know that it's my prayer for you. You just hang in there, keep coming back. I mean, Scott and I are going to have fun. Yeah, we hope that you have fun as you listen.
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Pastor Dave
We're trying to keep our episodes at 20 minutes. Our bonus videos will be a lot more than that.
00;20;26;07 - 00;20;35;25
Scott Brekke
Yeah. Yeah. So just a quick reminder, check out the bonus video. What we're going to just dive deep into some of the main points from this episode today.
00;20;36;03 - 00;20;55;06
Pastor Dave
So, thank you, Scott, for being a part of this. I want to thank you, all of you for listening. We hope you enjoyed this. We had fun. We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting together in episode two as we continue our study of the first era, Beginnings. Thank you and God bless.
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Scott Brekke
God bless.
00;21;01;06 - 00;21;37;23
Voiceover
Thank you for tuning into The Bible Breakthrough with Pastor David Engman, and Scott Brekke. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and will join us again for more of the Bible from B.C. to A.D. We are a volunteer-driven ministry and rely on you to help us get the word out to the world. Please, like this podcast on Facebook, share it to your page and continue to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. This has been a broadcast of the Breakthrough Media Network.