Confession is good for the soul they say, so here goes...
My name is DJ Ludlow and I am a Bible circler, underliner, and asterisker. There I've said it. OK that feels good.
There is no getting my Bible mixed up with anybody else's. Nearly any page you look at will have ink drawn circles, squares, underlines, asterisks, and notes all over it. Most are the legacy of "aha" moments as I read and reread my own, very dogeared copy of the Bible in a lifelong quest for truth and for an intimate knowledge of and relationship with my Lord, my Saviour and my King.
The Bible is indeed a sacred text to me. BUT it is the words that are sacred. The ink and paper are just ink and paper. But my copy of the Bible is now more than just the word of God, it is also the diary and logbook of my journey to Him and with Him.
Now I am making the transition from log to blog as I share with anybody out there who may be interested my own "aha" moments preserved as circles (and underlines etc.) in my Bible. So lets begin:-
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth"
The first circle in my Bible is the first sentence in it, Genesis 1:1. However it is not the first thing I circled. In fact my "aha" moment for this verse came while I was working on my Reality Bender video "Renaming The Elephant" (you can view it on my "IslandBards Channel" on YouTube).
It is one of those verses everybody is so familiar with that they can recite it without thinking - and that's the problem. I myself did it for many, many years and totally missed the full impact of what it declares. In it lies the key for understanding the truth of the reality we live in - God's reality.
Genesis 1:1 Declares that the Creation He made consists of 2 places - just 2 places, not 3 (It does not say He created the Earth, the universe and the heavens.). He created the Earth which in Hebrew is "erets". It refers to the solid planet beneath our feet. It comes from a root Hebrew word giving the sense of firmness and solidness. Today we call it "planet Earth". Everything else the Lord created He called "Heaven" or "the Heavens". Now that's worth repeating so that you absorb the full impact. Everything the Lord created that is NOT the planet we call "Earth" is what God (and the Bible) calls "Heaven". The Hebrew word is "Shamayim". It means high and lofty and wherever you see "Heaven" mentioned in the OT it is this same Hebrew word "Shamayim". In the NT the Greek word translated "Heaven" is "uranus" (and yes - careful how you pronounce it :-) and has a similar meaning to shamayim. Even when God created the clear sky above us (the "firmament") He even called that "Shamayim" (Heaven).
Now all the prophets and apostles of the Lord have made it abundantly clear right throughout the Bible that the sky and everything that God created beyond that is the place the Lord calls "Heaven". They always look UP into - Heaven. When Jesus ascended into the clouds even the angels ask the disciples why they were looking up into - Heaven. Even going so far as to assure them that the same way they just SAW Jesus ascending into - Heaven is the same way we will see Him return from - Heaven. What the disciples saw was Jesus ascending UP and disappearing into, the clouds above us. But thanks to science we now know that "up there" passed the clouds is indeed a very big and incredible place - the Universe (as science calls it) aka Heaven (as God calls it).
It is quite strange therefore that so few actually believe that the universe we see above us is the Heaven the Bible speaks of. Even more strange is that so many seem to regard the idea that the universe is the Heaven that the Bible speaks of is somehow strangely heretical as if that is not exactly what the Bible actually DOES say. The problem is not that the Bible says it, but that so many people simply cannot believe that the Bible actually says it. There seems to be some expectation (probably from the fanciful imaginings of Renaissance artists and writers of old) that Heaven should be more mysterious and grander than the Universe itself. That somehow the universe is too mundane, small, and ... REAL, to be Heaven. But browse a few NASA photos. The Universe is not grand enough and mysterious enough and big enough for you? That is the part of God's creation HE calls "Heaven".
Have you ever wondered why the universe is there seeing as man cannot reach it, or live in it (we cannot even get to or live on the nearest planet in our own Solar system, let alone a planet in another system.). That is because the Lord did not make the universe / Heaven for mankind. He made Earth for mankind. He made Heaven for HIS kind - the "Elohim", (God and the sons of God - the Hebrew "Elohim" literally means "Eloi and the children of Eloi" - the Eloi-im):-
(Psalm 115:16) “The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.”
If you fully understand what the Lord has declared as true in Genesis 1:1 ( that god created the Earth and everything else that is not the earth, and that everything that is not the Earth He called “Heaven”) much of the Bible will begin to make a whole lot more sense to you and perhaps leave you more awestruck than you could ever imagine. Perhaps next time you read Genesis 1:1 you may even circle it yourself.
‘Til next time ...
