What I learned in bible study group

     We began bible study in Genesis.  In the first 3 chapters we learned:
1. God exists, and has always existed and will always exist.  He alone is the only unchanging thing in existence.
2.  God is the creator
3.  God is Elohim (God in three persons)
4. God is a spirit
5.  the messiah is God
6. God is a God of order
7.  Jehovah means Lord
8. Gods wants a relationship with men
9. God wants what is best for man
10 God establishes the rules
11 God does not force man to be His friend but gave man free will
12 God is a loving God and a forgiving God, making a way of escape

  There are many other things we learned.  We learned about the Sabbath day, the institution of marriage, about Satan and his methods and also about the first death.
  No, the first death was not Abel but was the death of an animal to clothe  Adam and Eve.
  The first three chapters are short and take only a few minutes to read.  These chapters are not meant to be a scientific explanation of creation but a meant only to lay a foundation where upon which we may build the truth.
  I've learned not to read into scripture things that are not there and also not to gloss over things that are.  Some believe in a gap theory to explain dinosaurs and the age of the earth but if the gap theory were a fact God would have told us so.  We know that God created the garden of Eden for Adam and Eve and we know that Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply.  What we are not told is how long they were in the garden before being forced to leave because of their sin.  There is no reason for u to make up stuff to fill in the blanks that God leaves.
  One may think that it takes a lot of faith to believe in the God of scripture, and it does.  But it takes more faith than I have to believe that the perfect order of the universe happened by pure chance.  The original question was "where does stuff come from?"  and one cannot have two forces collide or a single force just explode to create things because one still has to explain where the force or forces came from.
  This coming week we are going to discuss some prophesies concerning the messiah.  I call it gold mining:  digging out the little nuggets of gold concerning the coming messiah.  Then I am going to do an overview of the old testament so we can put it into perspective and make it more relevant and meaningful.