Hello everybody, and welcome in to episode Six of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Genesis 1 today, and our focus is on The Image of God. Welcome to new listeners in South Africa, Vasterbotten, Sweden, New South Wales, Australia, Davao Del Sur, Philippines, Haryana, India  New York, New York, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,Tulsa, Oklahoma and Kansas City, Missouri. Thank you for joining us for Bible 2021! We are a daily podcast, where we will dig into ten minutes of truth from the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day. Our focus this year is on DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast Don’t forget about our new web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more! Thank you for a great and encouraging iTunes review from J. Bunn!

As promised, and only somewhat late, I released a PDF and Word document copy of the Bible reading plan that we will be following this year, and you can download it here: https://bible2021.com/readingplan/  Our plan is to read 5 New Testament readings a week, and then 2 Old Testament readings. During the first part of the year, we will go through the Old Testament semi-chronologically, and the last part of the year, we will focus on Psalms and a little bit of Proverbs.  2 Things I need to tell you about this document. #1 As I mention quite often, our goal this year is to stimulate and enable DAILY Bible reading. The goal is not completion, but daily time in the Word. So don’t let this reading plan be an anchor that causes you to feel guilty about missing readings. Read the Word daily. If you miss a day, get up, dust yourself off, and read the present day’s reading. You can go back and read the prior readings, but there is no pressure to do that, and I don’t want you to get overwhelmed. #2 Many Bothans died to bring us this information. Well, actually – it took a long time for me to do it, because I have the scheduling ability of a slightly rancid tomato that has been crushed into a mud puddle. My wife is the scheduling wizard in our family…so this document took some stretching of the old brain. If the pod today doesn’t make sense, well, it’s because I used up all of my brain power on the reading plan doc.

Today we are in Genesis 1, and our focus verse is one of the most foundational verses in all of Scripture, Genesis 1:27:

So God created man
in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female. Genesis 1:27

Let’s read Genesis 1, and then discuss it a little bit.

First thing that should jump out to us: God created everything by His Words. Psalms 33:6 puts it this way, “The heavens were made by the word of the Lord,
and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.” For humans, this is an absolutely incomprehensible amount of power. We could spend this and several podcasts just focused on that one big truth, but today our focus is on God’s creation of humans. We find out in Genesis 1:27 that humans are made differently than any other of God’s creation, because humans are made in the Image of God – the Imago Dei. That humans are made in the Image of God has hundreds, probably thousands of implications, with perhaps the chief implication being that ALL human life is incredibly precious and valuable. Thus we must treat each other well, as the harming of somebody made in the Image of God is forbidden – either physical harm, or harm by our words.

Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans his blood will be shed,
for God made humans in his image. Genesis 9:6

And

⁹ With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. James 3:9-10

Let’s close our time today with some wisdom from John Piper on how humans being made in the Image of God should inform our actions:

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.” In our relationships there should be a growing devotion and affection for each other. . There have to be smaller groupings where this can be lived out. “Brotherly love,” “devotion”—these are not emotionless actions. They are the growing affection of a good family. Let’s draw people into the experience of family. Young, old, married, single, rich, poor, different ethnic backgrounds. Become family for each other. This is what Jesus said would happen for those who follow him—you will have “brothers and sisters and mothers and children”—one hundredfold, if you follow him.

And then there is “honor.” Verse 10b: “Give preference to one another in honor.” Yes, there should be growing family closeness and affection. But intimacy and affection are not the only good way we relate; there is honor. There is a dignity about every human being created in the image of God that our culture does not know. The most needy person in your small group is to be honored.

John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2014).

End of the Show: Bible memory verse for January: Mark 1:15 ¹⁵ “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Happy by Mike Leite https://soundcloud.com/mikeleite
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/al_happy
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/TlwWc-6dZig