Wednesday, June 10, 2020

The Creator’s Vision and Values for Humanity


The Creator’s Vision & Values for Humanity is embedded in the stories of the Sixth and Seventh Days in Genesis 1:1-2:4a. It is one of the most powerful texts in the Bible and has influenced lives for over 2500 years. One of the most powerful phrases in the Bible is also in it – “the image of God.” Those words played a major role in the founding of the United States of America!

Below is a quick summary of key parts of the Creator’s vision:

1. Gender equality of females and males. They are two parts of ADAM (Hebrew word for “humanity”). They are counterparts created to work in harmony together as equals that are adequate for each other in every way. Equality and Male and Female working in Harmony are Lives 1st Values.

2. Fathers and Mothers that work as a Team. They are to bring forth the next generation of children and be the caretakers, protectors, teachers and mentors. They are to meet all of their needs of the children – physical, psychological, and emotional. Parenting is a Lives 1st Value.

3. Impulse Control and Self-Discipline. Humans are created with an Earth soul like the animals and the Spirit of the Creator. They have instincts that are driven by early appetites, desires and longings, while also being driven by the Creator’s Spirit to do things like the Creator that are TOV – protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life. Freewill and the Capacity to Do Things that are TOV are Lives 1st Values.

4. Eat Green Plants and Fruit from Tree. Humans are to eat plant-based diets of green plants, herbs and fruit from trees. All of those things are to produce seeds that reproduce their own kind. A Plant-Based Diet is a Lives 1st Value.

5. Co-Shepherds of all Life on Earth. Humans are endowed with godlike roles of acting as the Creator’s vice regents and Co-Shepherds -- exercising power like a shepherd exercises power over its flock by doing acts that protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life. The Shepherding Model for Exercising Power is a Lives 1st Value.

6. Reflect the Image of the Creator on the Earth. Humans are collectively created “in the Image of the Creator” – ADAM. “The image of the Creator requires the presence of male and female humans – the minimum requirements for creating a new human life. Reflecting the “image of the Creator” requires male and female working together doing things that measure TOV -- protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life. Reflecting the Image of the Creator on Earth is a Lives 1st Value.

7. Recall and Teach the Creator’s Vision. Humans are to gather, recall and teach the Creator’s Vision on the Seventh Day. They are to let the entire community hear the ancient words read aloud weekly, do their best to make it a reality in their lives, and pass it down from one generation to next. Sharing the Creator’s Vision is a Lives 1st Value.

Of all people on earth, the Jewish people know the power of holding fast to a vision of God. They held his vision of restoring them to their homeland from 450 BCE until 1948 CE – before it became a reality.

How would you like to live in a world described in the Creator’s vision? In many ways, it reminds us of descriptions of what Heaven is supposed to be like. The Creator’s vision is about life on Earth while we are alive. It is about what the Creator wants all people to experience while they are alive!

Words become thoughts,
thoughts become mental images,
mental images become plans,
and plans + actions become realities.

In closing remember this, the man and woman created in Genesis 1 never say or do anything. They are not Adam and Eve. The words the Creator spoke about them are his vision for what human lives should be like. From the perspective of the Creator’s vision – Adam and Eve blew it! But by reading their lives in light of the Creator’s vision, readers learn much more about to live their lives. That’s what the stories were written to do!

Thank you for reading this. Please share and discuss it with others.

May your be blessed with, and bless others with, an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

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