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September 19, 2019

It was a great night at youth group last night as we kicked off our new series. Over the next 20 weeks, we’ll be journeying through the most important parts of the whole Bible, trying to tie together the biggest themes that we see. The goal is that we would start to see The Bible not as individual stories within a whole, much like an anthology or collection of books… but rather that we’d see everything as interconnected, the way that God intended His Word to be read.

After spending some time playing a team game and worshipping, the Middle School and High School groups split and we both spent our time in Genesis 1 and 2, the very beginning of the story. We keyed in on these main points:

• God is the central figure in the story. Everything starts with Him. In fact, humans don’t come into existence until the very end of chapter 1!
• God makes order out of chaos. We see this especially in the 7 days of creation. God takes what was formless and void, and He gives order to it. This is a theme that we’ll trace across the scriptures.
• God creates man and woman, and He delights in them because they are made in HIS image. No other creation is made in God’s image, which sets us apart. Because God is the most perfect being, He takes the greatest delight in Himself. In making us to bear His image, God takes more delight in us than He does in His other creation.
• God gives purpose to mankind! He doesn’t leave them without a job. He says “fill the earth and subdue it.” God want us to take His good creation, and make it even better!

We spent quite a while talking about these things in both groups. Some points of application were:

• When we read God’s Word, the most important thing we can look for is to learn more about God! That seems simple, but much of the time we need the reminder that God’s story is not all about us. We are key characters in God’s story, but first and foremost, the scriptures tell us about God, and His character, and His nature!
• God created mankind to live in community. He didn’t leave Adam alone in the world, but He gave Him Eve, who was a helper fit for him! Then, He commands them to populate the earth. He doesn’t want us to live in isolation.
• God made us as His image bearers. If we are human, we bear His image. That gives us incredible worth and value. It helps us understand why God would want us to become more like Jesus, and to be ambassadors for His names sake!

I really want to encourage you to ask your students about what we’re learning over these next 20 weeks. Even if you just ask them to try and recap what we read in the scriptures, it will be a good exercise for you and for them. Perhaps ask them about how they saw God in their scripture reading. Ask them about their Christian community, and if they are building up the Christians around them. The hope is that youth group is a jumping off point for conversations at home!