GOD LOVES YOU.

GOD DESIRES ALL MEN TO BE SAVED

AND TO COME TO THE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH

(1.TIMOTHY, 2;4)

LIFE-STUDY OF GENESIS

MESSAGE ONE

GENESIS?THE GENERAL SKETCH

AND CENTRAL THOUGHT

Praise the Lord for the Bible! Praise the Lord for the life, the divine life, the eternal life, which is contained in this Book! And praise the Lord that He has afforded us this opportunity to have a life-study of His divine Word with such a large congregation! The Lord willing, starting from today, April 6th, 1974, we shall continue this life-study through the Bible, book after book, consecutively every weekend. May the Lord grant us His dear presence with His rich anointing all the way through our study.

A WONDERFUL BOOK

The Bible is a wonderful book. It is "The Book" among all books! It took 1600 years to complete, starting with Moses, the greatest prophet of God, and ending with the Apostle John. It was confirmed 300 years later (397 A.D.) at a council held at Carthage in North Africa. Not long after that, the Bible was locked away from the people by the Catholic Church. For nearly a thousand years, from the 6th century through the 15th century, the Bible was locked up. History calls this period the Dark Age. Human society became dark because the Bible, containing all the divine light, was locked away from humanity.

Then, in the Reformation, God used Martin Luther to unlock the Bible. At the same time, printing was invented, allowing the Bible to be printed. Although the Bible was unlocked, it was not so open. Yet, we thank the Lord that during the past five centuries He has opened up His Word again and again through many great teachers. We stand on their shoulders and we are grateful to them. Yet, how we thank the Lord that today the Bible is so open to us, allowing us to have a rich life-study of the living Word.

THE BREATH OF GOD

What is the Bible? We know that the word "Bible" means "the Book." But what is this book? The Bible itself says, "All Scripture is God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible is the breath of God. It is not merely the word or the thought of God, but the very breath of God. Whatever we breathe out is our breath, and this breath proceeds out of our being. So the Bible as the breath of God is something breathed out of the being of God. The Bible contains the very element of God. Whatever God is, is contained in this divine book. God is light, life, love, power, wisdom, and many other items. All these items of what God is have been breathed out into the Bible. Whenever we come to this book with an open heart and an open spirit, we can immediately touch something divine: not just thoughts, concepts, knowledge, words, or sentences, but something deeper than all these

things. We touch God Himself.

PRAISE THE LORD!

JOSEPH RHEE

selcont@korea.com

www.seoulequip.com