God’s unfolding story thread. Genesis 1:1 is usually translated “In the beginning, God created.” But is it saying something more? Walk this way . . .

 

This series is related to a spiritual call (started in the early 90s) for me to walk a bridge—from the Judaic camp reaching out to the Messianic/Christian camp and then vice versa—crisscrossing it, realizing and later sharing who and what the real bridge is. Walk with me to discover God’s revelations and passionate plan for our souls.

 

© desireofmysoul.faith (.com & .org) & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 

HIGHLY SUGGEST FIRST READING: Beginnings within Beginnings [Part 1]

 

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

 

Discussions—heated or otherwise—span the ages regarding the Genesis 1:1 wording, which is often translated “In the beginning, God created.” But considering a point of Hebraic grammar, is that what it’s really saying—and how does any of that fit into God’s redemption-focused story thread?

 

Some scholars and/or grammarians say those first words aren’t exactly as traditionally translated. There’s no “the” in the Hebrew text. So they translate with a one-word shift: “In a beginning.”

 

A stirring literal translation on a gazillion levels. And how that ups the game on God’s story line. This in-a-beginning view has been discussed many times over the years at Torah study tables—and always sets my mind spinning in a thrilling, isn’t-God-amazing way.

 

Three other views help us branch that concept even further . . .

 
 

 
 

THE BEGINNINGS STORY THREAD: A FEW STEPS MORE

 

Stephen Rayburn points out in his 2009 “D’var Torah: Bereshit” article, that Rashi (esteemed medieval rabbi/Talmudic commentator) regarded the word b’reshit as a statement not about “the absolute beginning of everything” but when “God turned His attention to our own world.”

 

Now add a point of biblical consistency—discussed in this two-minute Genesis 1:1 Hebrew grammar note—the construct in Genesis 1:1 (needing a noun) would be translated . . .

 

“In the (or a) beginning of God’s creating.”

 

And lastly, factor in this intriguing view from Rabbi Jeffrey W. Goldwasser . . .

 

Back in October 2011, Reb Jeff wrote in his blog post (“Bereshit: In the Beginning of What?”) a more illustrative translation based on the grammatical analysis and infusing spiritual innuendos of timelessness.

 

He says the “world never stopped being created” since it “has a beginning, but it is a beginning that has never ceased.”

 

Goldwasser’s Genesis 1:1 translation goes like this:

 

“In the beginning of the beginning that is always beginning, G-d created the creation that is still [beginning and creating].”

 

The Creator is always creating. He “rested” from His earth project but never really stopped creating—everything He creates is in a forward, unfolding, beginning-within-a-beginning motion. Contracting, reaching down, extending out . . . beginning anew.

 

God IS the beginning.
 

The One who has NO beginning.

 

Yet WITHIN HIM is the beginning within a beginning within a beginning that is unfolding and still beginning and creating.

 

Simply complex, right? In light of creation alone, we’re talking about the mind-bending, humanly incomprehensible dunamis power of our holy God.

 

QUESTION FOR YOU

 

What was going on with these beginnings within beginnings . . . when there was absolutely no beginning because God has no beginning and no end?

 

We know He birthed creation with a WORD. Scripture confirms it. Even rabbinic teaching says that the WORD God spoke in the creative process did the creation.

 

I couldn’t agree more.

 

In fact, it’s the apex—the critical story thread—linking God’s beginnings within beginnings and the reveal of the redemptive gift to humanity.

 

So let’s climb that summit to discover what has been waiting there for us all along.

 

READ THIS NEXT: Beginnings within Beginnings [Part 3].

 

GOT TWO MINUTES?

Read quick examples of God’s many beginnings, those in the past, those in the works now, and those on the horizon.

Side Bar [Many Beginnings]

 
 

PHOTO CREDITS for this Beginnings series:

Cloud/Light by Marcus Dall Col on Unsplash.com

Steam Punk Minister w/Bible by Nathan Bingle on Unsplash.com

Steps with child by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash.com

Follow the Line on asphalt photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash.com

Woman in jeans with Bible by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.com

 
 

It can feel like you’re walking on a high wire.

Deconstructing . . . for your soul’s reconstruction.

Breaking free from preconceived “factions.”

Becoming Divergent, your unique self in the Lord.

 

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 
 

READ TIME: 4 MINUTES.

 

He said, “Go.” But I wondered, “Where? When? For how long?” A shift was in motion. It was palpable, stirring in the pit of my soul, pushing me to the edge of a cliff and onto a high wire across a chasm with no way back.

 

So I waited. Waited for His move that would move me. I stood before Him . . . praying . . . pacing . . . questioning . . . seeking . . . kneeling . . . then standing some more. But He wasn’t “moving” me anywhere. I’d been dropped into no-man’s-land.

 

That doesn’t mean things were stilled. I had become a girl interrupted—on a cliff in a God-designed wilderness. Recently widowed, followed by what felt like an avalanche of even more losses, relationship changes, twists, and turns. Suspended.

 

I was free falling. I couldn’t breathe. My body, yes. My soul, not so much. It was suffocating. I’d lost my tribe in more ways than one and didn’t know where I fit in any more, if any place. And the uneasiness of where else this journey was taking me (soul wise or otherwise) was escalating. I felt like a character in one of my favorite YA movies, Divergent.

 

---

It will be difficult to break the habits of thinking . . .
instilled in me, like tugging a single thread
from a complex work of embroidery.
—Tris, Divergent by Veronica Roth

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GOD’S LOVE CALL

 
 

God is in the soul business. And He was moving deep within mine to set it apart for His purpose, taking me off the grid of my life and into a six-year-and-counting process called in Hebrew lech lecha (pronounced lek leh-kah,לֶךְ-לְךָ).

 

Totally à la Abraham in Genesis 12:1 where God told him to leave his land, father’s house, all that he knew to follow God to a new place.

 

A lech lecha journey is God-appointed . . . the soul traverses deeper, going to itself, within itself, and for itself, for a higher purpose.

 

A special period of time God sets apart. On a special journey. A seemingly precarious one. Like getting into an unstable canoe and heading out toward the ocean.

 

Not always a physical move. Not a disciplinary action. It’s a love call.

 

A wooing-from-God wilderness journey
away from the common,
into the holy,
uncovering the soul’s hiddenness.

 

It’s where He does the deepest work in your soul so it can emerge in another level of its potential in Him—a matter of the soul where it becomes its purpose, which is always linked to bringing forth the kingdom of God.

 

He removes any heaviness in your soul that’s hindering its movement . . . anything that’s muffling His voice or words . . . anything that’s blinding the soul from seeing or receiving His visions and revelations.

 

It’s like God is parting the Red Sea inside you. Rabbinic thought says that God peeled back the sea to reveal a mystery. The earth represents the physical, what is visible, tangible. But the hidden under the sea represents the spiritual, what isn’t discerned in the physical and natural.

 

During your soul-remodeling process, God peels your life back. He removes you from what’s been your “natural” way of moving and being to expose what is flowing in those subterranean waters within your soul, within its nuances (breath, spirit, life force/living being).

 

The deconstruction-reconstruction wilderness process doesn’t necessarily occur because you’re steeped in sin and out of alignment . . . although that can happen. The deconstruction-reconstruction process is first and foremost a time when God wants to go deeper and draw you closer.

 

It’s a time where things are stripped away so the soul can get newly positioned with Him, away from the earthbound/world-focused body, making room for what is to come.

 

The process isn’t comfortable or easy. It may seem as if everything you put your hand to doesn’t work. Even if it flowed smoothly before.

 

Losses may surround you—like in finances, personal endeavors, work, relationships, family matters, health issues. The way you and God used to communicate and interact takes a hard right turn—your prayer life, study time, worship time.

 

You may feel . . .
abandoned,
disconnected,
uncertain,
foreign,
not your norm.

 

You might be tempted to see things as rapidly sliding
d
o
w
n
h
i
l
l
without any end in sight.

 

BUT. HANG. ON. He is there with you in the center of it all.

 

There will be flashes of light. Like when you’re walking in the dark during a thunderstorm and lightning momentarily reveals a patch of ground around you, letting you know where to step next.

 

Trust Him. God will flash His light of revelation, understanding, direction during the wilderness journey. Maybe small flashes like a firefly—or greater, like lightning cracking the sky.
 

In time, in bits here and there, you’ll get a glimpse of where your soul is, what’s going on, and what He expects through the deep-work process.

 

And at times, you just might find your unsettling feeling starting to converge with an inner lightning bolt of excitement.

 

You also might start to realize that He is journeying with you for a specific purpose through unchartered territory where your soul will mature, awaken, and soar in unimagined ways. Ways it couldn’t have if you were still living in the old and familiar.

 

What you need is God’s game plan. Yep, He has one.

 

Read about it next: Soul Remodeling: The Wilderness Call, Part 2

 

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I throw my arms out to the side and imagine that I am flying . . .
My heart beats so hard it hurts, and I can’t scream and I can’t breathe,
but I also feel everything, every vein, and every fiber, every bone
and every nerve, all awake and buzzing in my body
as if charged with electricity.
I am pure adrenaline.
—Tris,Divergent by Veronica Roth

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PHOTO CREDIT:

Boat photo by Zoltan Tase on Unsplash.com

 

NOTE: The original Soul Remodeling post was created in late 2014, later post divisions were added for easier reading.