All over the world men and women are trying to establish their values, who they are, why they are the way they are, what they think, what they believe, what is their philosophy of life.

Unfortunately, few take into consideration that no matter what you may say about yourself or think about your origin, the facts cannot be changed. Your origin establishes the framework of who you are and how you function.

From where do you proceed? What do you believe about your origin?

The controversy over origins is not simply a philosophical question or a mind game. The truth about origins is crucial to the quest for peace, significance and belonging.

If the truth about origins is that you are the end product of a mindless, mechanistic universe then the quest for peace is hopeless and a waste of effort. While it is not the purpose of this course to exhaustively examine the question of Creation versus Evolution it is important to recognise the implications of both perspective’s. The perspective of the bible is profound yet simple - God is real and we are His creation.

One world philosophy today is that of materialism. But materialism is insufficient to meet the needs of the human condition.

A philosophy that says we are material only and that all our needs are material doesn’t make sense in this world and it only leaves a void deep down in our hearts

The Bible starts with a Personal God

This is why you and I will never find our fulfilment and satisfaction in material, physical things only. If there is a personal God, who has created us like Him, then that may answer some of the questions we have.

There are 3 things we need to know of what the Bible says about God

God is spirit, non-material in being; he formed atoms and molecules but is not himself atoms and molecules. He is a person.

We understand the difference between personal and non-personal. What does this mean if God is personal?

DISTINCTIVES OF PERSONALITY -

feeling

thoughts

know and understanding

desires and passions

creativity

imagination

emotions

ideas

will, purpose

care

determination

evaluation

morality

The Bible shows us that God is all of these things.

The Bible also says that God is self-existent

Those who deny God on scientific grounds have to start with self-existent matter. In other words, they have to, at some point, come to agree that something has eternally been present in the universe. If they didn’t then the question "Where did atoms and molecules come from?" could never be answered. On the basis of chance alone, there is far greater chance that God created the universe and everything in it then there is that everything happened to come together by chance which eventually evolved into life as we know it today.

What I am saying is this, that the person who believes in the process of evolution has more faith than I do. This is because the chance that everything happened to come together from a random and chaotic universe, to evolve into the life and order, is statistically impossible. Therefore, I believe in the probable on the basis of chance, while the evolutionist believes in the impossible - this makes them have more faith then me.

The point is this. Science can only prove matter. Something that does not consist of matter is outside of the scientific realm. Therefore, science on its own cannot, with its limitations, prove the Infinite God. What we are saying is that it is not matter that is infinite, but person-hood, personality.

God is not a single entity.

He is 3 persons, yet so intimate that only one essence is evident.

Because God is a trinity, we can explain why man is like he is. i.e. If God was a single unity and you were created like him, you would not know pain or rejection because you too would be a unity - able to live alone.

God created the universe out of His own personality, being.

What if God was a single person eg unitarianism?

What would the world be like?

Q. How could love exist?

God could not be love because love needs an object.

God did not invent love - He is love.

From all eternity God has existed in 3 separate, distinct, identifiable persons showing love to each other.

Q. How could communication exists?

If man is created in God’s image - then man would have to be a solitary image and he would find his fulfilment in being alone and isolated and cut off from any other human contact.

It is not good for man to be alone - man, like God, was intended to be relational.

Q. Origin of music especially harmony.

ie. chord - not random notes, not chaotic

Imagine what would happen If we assembled an orchestra and asked each musician to do his/her own thing.

Music and harmony demonstrates plan, purpose, intention, beauty, joy etc.

A single chord (3 notes) 1st,3rd,5th produces a single harmonious sound.

We can isolate and identify each note but in a perfect harmony no one note stands apart from the other two. Thus, together, the Trinity is perfect unity - three in one and one in three.

Love is not an INVENTION .....

To understand yourself why you feel the way you feel, you need to know 2 truths.

You need to know yourself by creation (the way you have been formed)

You need to know what has happened to you as a consequence of the fall

It is these tuths we shall be looking at in Sessions 1 and 2.

HOW I SEE MYSELF

No matter what you say about yourself - you cannot change truth.

Unless what you think you are is in harmony with what you actually are you are going to struggle in your life.

eg.

a person who thinks he’s a fish and tries to stay underwater for an hour without breathing apparatus will die. Or...

a boy who believes he can fly and jumps off a garage roof will severely injure himself.

The point is, things that are fundamentally true do not change on the basis of my perceptions.

For you to be whole - you need to make sure your perceptions, beliefs are in line with fundamental truth.

Read Genesis 1:26-31

Man was created in God’s image.

What has God woven into your being?

Why did God create you?

He wanted to love you, relate to you. Therefore, by creation, I was created for RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

This is the essential reason you and I were created.

BY creation I am a CHILD of God.

We are not created to do jobs for God. That would make us servants, yet God calls us his children.

God is our Father. He created life as an extention of Himself - in His image.

He knew that by creating us He was committing Himself to us just as a loving parent commits themself to the care of their child.

Because we were created for God and to find our significance in Him - then to live the opposite is to deny truth and live in discord.

People will never find wholeness trying to spend their time denying God.

You and I were made for FATHER GOD. He created us to find our value, significance, meaning by REFLECTION in Him, not the world and waht ut says about us.

We were created to learn who we are in the context of RELATIONSHIP

Because God is a God of relationship and we were created like Him there are 3 things that have been woven into the fabric of our being - they are essential.

1) I was created with an ineradicable need for love and acceptance.

2) I was created with a need to know that I belong. To find a place of connection.

3) I was created to know that I am valued. To know that I have worth.

Therefore, I have a deep need of intimacy

to be loved

accepted

find belonging

be valued

I need to discover each of these things but only in the context of relationship with God. It means we were created to develop in Father's CHARACTER by sharing relationship with Him. As I develop in life and grow in relationship with Him, I learn His value system as my own. I learn what is important, true, right and this leads me to live under God the Father’s BLESSING.

When we are out of relationship with God and others we hurt. This is why we need to live under God’s dominion. What does this word indicate? LEADERSHIP, RULING, CONTROL.

The result of this kind of life is that we would be FRUITFUL and this word ‘fruitfulness, indicates SUCCESS (spiritually), PERFORMANCE(functioning as God designed us to function), ABILITY, CAPACITY, PROSPERITY (spiritual prosperity - not material prosperity). Which are not found under our own efforts, or by our own will power or resolve, but under the guidance of God’s hand in our relationship with Him.

Loyalty to Him and relationship to Him is the fabric that would hold life together.

God wants us to achieve the same sense of security He enjoys.

By creation my whole being was to centre in FATHER-GOD with the added blessing of relationship with others (Gen 2:15-24).

By creation my world revolves around relationships with Father as the centre, keeping everything in its perspective. I would walk, talk, share, learn and love in the reflected affirmation of my Father and thus grow up to be like Him, secure in being what I was created to be as He is settled in His eternal personality - "I Am that I Am."

We will look at what has happened to us.

You know that we may have been created to know - acceptance, belonging, value but reality of this is often a far cry. We will discover that trying to find these 3 through looking inwards rather than letting them be reflected from the outside, that is through God, they will only end in confusion and disappointment.