June 13 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Genesis 1:1-25

¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
⁶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
⁷And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
⁸And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
⁹And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
¹⁰And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
¹²And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
¹³And the evening and the morning were the third day.
¹⁴And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
¹⁵And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
¹⁶And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
¹⁷And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
¹⁸And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
¹⁹And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
²⁰And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
²¹And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
²³And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
²⁴And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Devotional

All that is is from the mind, the power, the hand of God the Creator. God made each thing to a certain way, perfect in itself, fulfilling His purpose for it. As it came from His hand it was 'very good.'

Part of the goodness of the world lies in the fact that each animate thing was equipped to reproduce other individuals like itself, 'after its kind.' The creation was and is self-perpetuating. In myriad ways new members are daily brought into being. The process of male and female cells uniting to form young varies with fern and holly and sea horse and man. But the pattern is the same; parents bring forth new individuals like themselves.

This first chapter of Genesis rules out the possibility of a haphazard, chance-formed universe, gradually evolving, again by chance. It rules out the notion that impersonal matter, plus time, plus chance, results in all that now exists, as Francis Schaeffer expresses it.

It is absolutely basic that we in our homes have an adequate concept of the personal God who had a plan in creation, a plan which extends down through history and through eternity and which embraces us! According to His plan human beings live in families with a father and mother and children. The God-ordained unit of society is the home.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for this good and beautiful world. And thank You for making provision in Your plan for our becoming members of Your special family through Your Son.