DEFAULT SETTINGS PART 1

Default Settings


Hello my readers.  Today I want to discuss a topic I touching all people of all cultures.  Let me know how this article helps shape your thinking, ok?

Many of us think of computers when we hear the term “Default Setting”.  An example is my choice of Comic Sans MS in size 14, black color font for this Word Document.
However, I will use the term “Default Setting” as an analogy to the human condition.

MANKIND’S BEGINNING

A careful study of the account of the creation of the world, the creation of mankind [male and female He created them], and the nature of the relationship between the Creator, God, and the created human, helps us to understand our own lives and struggles in life.
To understand this message, we must make some qualifying statements about who is God.  God is good. God is sovereign.  God is all powerful and Almighty.  God always acts in accordance with His own perfect nature.  For example, God never tells a lie.  God does not say one thing, and then need to change His mind.  God is all knowing.  God never had to learn anything.  God has always known everything.  For example, God already knows what word you will speak before you have it as a thought.  God knows your every thought, action and attitude. God is a personal God.    God is the Creator of all.  God is self existent, has no beginning or no end.  No one created God. God is perfectly satisfied with Himself, He needs nothing to be complete.  Yet God desired to create a being in His own image, with many of the character qualities of God.  This creature would know God and be known by God.

The history of the forebears of all humans, named Adam and Eve, the first humans, created by the Hand and the Breath of God Himself, shows us something about “Default Setting”.
Humans are not and will never evolve into God.  Humans are created to give glory to God by means of our willing submission to God. 

We submit to God, not out of duty, but out of design.

Our original ‘Default Setting’ was one of trusting in the wisdom of God, allowing God to be the ‘boss’ our lives.  There was no sign of rebellion toward the rule of God over every area of our lives. 

Mankind was created morally pure, not knowing good from evil.  There was no need.  Mankind was incapable of choosing good, as well as discerning between that which is good or non-good. 

Evil is not the opposite of good; evil is the absence of good. 

Since God is good, evil is the absence of God.

Mankind was created in the image and for the purpose of displaying the image of God in the created world.  The angels looked on as God took of the dust of the ground and made Adam.  What made Adam unique to the rest of creation? Animals? Mankind has a spirit, breathed in by God’s Spirit. Man has a soul [individual mind, will and emotions] and is ‘wired’ with a free will capable of choosing to obey or to disobey the Creator.  Man is therefore capable of being ‘relational’ with God.  Knowing God.  Enjoying God!  Intimate knowledge of the Creator.  Animals have no such choice. 

    Man was created under the authority or rule of God.  Animals were to be under the authority of the rule of mankind.  God in fellowship daily with mankind would oversee mankind’s stewardship of the created world.  What a beautiful thing this must have been as Adam exercised dominion over the animals and plant life.