Live the Word Bible Studies

Purpose Bible 2: In His Image

Let's look at the concept of creativity as described in Genesis 1:26-27:

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.

Throughout Genesis 1, we see God portrayed as the Creator, deliberately making His creation on a day-by-day basis. Then God decided, in His infinite wisdom, to create mankind, but distinguished them from all His other creation by making them "in our image and likeness." Once God decided to create, He did not put it off or procrastinate, He immediately set about to create mankind "in His own image" (that phrase was mentioned twice for emphasis). 

Theologians have debated what part of mankind reflects God's image, but in this context, let's focus on creativity. The Creator made us to be creative, and we are little creative machines, producing body chemicals, dreams, new cells, ideas, sentences, written and verbal communication, and a host of other daily activities that are creative. In fact, you will probably utter a sentence today that has never been spoken before in the history of mankind in just the way you spoke it. Do you take your creativity for granted, or do you receive and express it as an important aspect of who God created you to be? What more can you do to reflect His image in what you create? Is your creativity to be a hobby or is to be receive front-and-center attention in your life's work and daily routine?

Purpose Bible 1: Order Out of Chaos

Welcome to the start of my Bible commentary on the topics of purpose and creativity in the Bible. We start today at the beginning, not only of the Bible, but where purpose began for me:

"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" (Genesis 1:2).

I noticed this verse when I was a young man and turned to a Bible commentary to read more about it. The author wrote "the Spirit was present to bring order out of chaos." Those words jumped out at me and have become the summary of my life purpose with one small adjustment: my purpose is "to create order out of chaos." Those few words perfectly summarize who I am and what I have done all my adult life.

There is also a Bible verse, passage, chapter, or book that summarizes and describes who you are as well. Do you know what or where it is? What does it say about you? If you know, are you being true to its meaning? If not, then be watching and waiting, for you may not recognize it right now, but one day you will be reading the Word, and your biblical purpose will literally jump off the page as mine did many years ago. Remember, the goal is a simple statement of purpose with some biblical justification or definition to go with it. Happy hunting!

Welcome to Live the Word

I am happy you have visited this site, where my goal since 2001 has been to help people all over the world understand and then apply the word of God to their lives. If you look on the right hand side of this blog site, you will see the name of each book in the New Testament, where you will find what I call a devotional commentary for every verse in those books. My goal was not to do a technical study, but rather a practical one that presented not only insights, but also questions and recommendations to help you apply or live the word. I have now published those studies in book form, but it's time to expand my work with something new (pictured here is one of my commentary covers, and they are all available in paper or Kindle format from Amazon).

For several years, I have had the idea to develop a Purpose Study Bible, similar to others on the market like The Spirit-Filled Bible, The Leadership Bible, The African Bible, and The Student Bible. Each one of those incorporates insight about a particular topic right in the Bible itself, like an easy-to-use commentary. I have been teaching on the topics of purpose and creativity since 1991, and have seen, gathered, and written about those topics from a biblical perspective. For the remainder of my days, I want to share what I have learned with my readers, and this format seems like an economical way to do so (since I am not ready to undertake publishing a Bible).

I also want to learn from my readers, so I invite you to post comments to supplement, correct, or augment what I have written. My goal, however, is not to make us all experts on what the Bible has to say about purpose, but rather to help us become people of purpose, for as Jesus said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17). That is why my commentaries are called Live the Word, for that is what we are expected to do.

I hope you enjoy reading these studies as much as I enjoy writing them, and I hope you will be an active participant by sharing your own insight and testimonies. Thank you, and may the Lord bless the study and reading of His word!