Monday, July 29, 2013

Creation a reading written by James Weldon Johnson

This reading "The Creation" is from the book, God's Trombones written many years ago by James Weldon Johnson, a black preacher from down south. 

Some of you have heard me do his reading "Go Down Death." This is a special one as well. I love the book of Genesis because it gives me the foundation for who I am and why I am here in this world. I trust you will be blessed by the reading of James Weldon Johnson on creation.

Here is a partial quote from an article on Genesis that you will find informative and helpful.

The Importance of the Book of Genesis

A surveyor must always begin from a point of reference. So, too, history must start at some definite place of beginnings. The Bible is, through and through, a historical revelation. It is the account of God’s activity in history. As such, it must have a beginning. The book of Genesis gives us our historical point of reference, from which all subsequent revelation proceeds.
In this book we find the “roots” of the inhabited world and the universe, of man and nations, of sin and redemption. Also, we find the foundation of our theology. Fritsch, in The Layman’s Bible Commentary has referred to Genesis as “the starting point of all theology.” J. Sidlow Baxter has written,
The other writings of the Bible are inseparably bound up with it inasmuch as it gives us the origin and initial explanation of all that follows. The major themes of Scripture may be compared to great rivers, ever deepening and broadening as they flow; and it is true to say that all these rivers have their rise in the watershed of Genesis. Or, to use on equally appropriate figure, as the massive trunk and wide-spreading branches of the oak are in the acorn, so, by implication and anticipation, all Scripture is in Genesis. Here we have in germ all that is later developed. It has been truly said that “the roots of all subsequent revelation are planted deep in Genesis, and whoever would truly comprehend that revelation must begin here.”
From A Walk Through The Book of Genesis at the Bible.org

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