When God placed the first man in the garden, He created a unilateral agreement with him which granted much freedom and one restriction.  God’s duty was to continue to supply an abundance of food.  The man’s duty was to enjoy those foods with an abundant life as a consequence, and to avoid the restricted one on penalty […]

When God placed Adam in the garden, He gave him dominion over it to manage and cultivate.  But in this text, God goes on to issue a higher calling to guard it as a place of worship.  By this, Adam assumes the role of priest over the garden.  But this first priest would not be the last in […]

The beautiful garden in Eden which God created for our first parents was complete, perfect.  In it and through it He gave them everything they needed including a vocation, that noble work to tend it.  When they thought they knew better than God what they needed, they lost it all, including the beauty and fulfillment of their […]

To know what we were made for, we must know where and what we came from. Our text describes God’s creation of man as living being, both body and spirit. In our sin, we neglect one or the other or both, and die. Only Christ whose body and spirit were uncorrupted by sin can be […]

After creation of the Earth and its inhabitants in six days, God rested on the seventh.   In so doing, He a set a precedent for the life pattern of humankind.  We often say we don’t have time to be still, meditate on scripture, pray, or visit the lonely and sick.  But God has given us one seventh of […]

After God created the cosmos, the earth, and every living thing on the earth, He created man uniquely—in the image of God.  To us He gave the noble purpose of tending to the earth and it’s inhabitants by filling the earth with other images of God and subduing it for their well being to the glory […]

In this installment of our series we see the third, or relational aspect of being made in the image of God.    Friendships, exclusively those among humans, reflect the image of God.  These include marriage, close relationships among singles, families, and communities.  The Genesis command to be fruitful includes the pursuit and nurture of relationships, and the effort to […]

This sermon continues our exploration of what it means to be made in the image of God.   One aspect of our image is the creation of the human body by God, a deliberate act of God which gives rise to the body’s intrinsic value.   We live in a culture that rejects the biblical account of it’s origin […]