Christopher D. Hudson - NIV College Devotional Bible

NIV

College Devotional Bible

Table of Contents

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The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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 morningthe first day.

And God said, Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water. So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault sky. And there was evening, and there was morningthe second day.

And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morningthe third day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was so. God made two great lightsthe greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morningthe fourth day.

And God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky. So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morningthe fifth day.

And God said, Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind. And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the groundeverything that has the breath of life in itI give every green plant for food. And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morningthe sixth day.

On the sixth day of creation, God creates human beings in his own image from the dust, breathing life into their nostrils.

Read

These simple passages affirm that we were created in the very likeness of the Creator himself, and thereforeeven in our humannesswe are of great worth. The following story demonstrates the miraculous reach of sacrificial love and service when that worth is recognized in every person.

In 1718, Rebecca Protten, daughter of a white father and an African mother, was born into slavery in the sugar colony on the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas. Her love affair with freedom almost certainly began when she dedicated herself to Christ as a young girl. Then her owners set her free, and she became part of the tiny minority of free Africans in the Caribbean at that time. Most of her people labored under grueling conditions on the harsh, and often deadly, sugar plantations.

Though free, Rebecca found few opportunities to exercise that freedom in the racially divided West Indies. She longed to aid her brothers and sisters in the fields, but she didnt know how to help without arousing suspicion and risking arrest.

Then one morning, while walking along the dockside, she met Friedrich Martin, who had just been sent by the Moravian church to preach the gospel specifically to the islands black slave population. He was not the first. Two men had come earlier, intending to become slaves themselves in order to speak from a platform of equality and humility. To their great disappointment, they learned that white men couldnt choose to become slaves, no matter how noble their cause.

Quickly recognizing their passion for Christ and commitment to freedom for all people, Rebecca chose to work alongside the Moravians. Together they spread the word about the love of Christ throughout the Caribbean. Her marriage to one of the missionaries upset many peopleinterracial marriages in the tense atmosphere of slave-versus-free rarely happened. But Rebecca recognized Gods love for people of every nation; she saw each face as the image of her Savior and each individual as an opportunity to serve her Lord.

What does it mean to you to have been created in Gods image? How does it affect how you live your life?

What areas of your life have been corrupted by a faulty view of human worth?

It is easy to put a judgment value on the worth of others. What can you do to change your thinking when you start to think like that? How can you begin to see each person as a bearer of Gods image?

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