1. CHURCH IN CREATION COL 1:15 CHRIST IS THE FIRSTBORN OF ALL CREATION; BECAUSE BY MEANS OF HIM ALL THINGS WERE CREATED IN THE HEAVENS AND UPON THE EARTH,

2. In the beginning was the word… What is the word of God?

3. WHAT IS THE WORD OF GOD? The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4

4. GENERAL REVELATION – THE FIRST BOOK OF GOD There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all that makes him God. But since the beginning of the world, those things have been easy for people to understand. They are made clear in what God has made. Rom 1:20 The “Book” of Nature is an “old age” concept popularized in the Latin Middle Ages which viewed nature as a book to be read for knowledge and understanding

5. EARLY CHURCH FATHERS Interest in nature by Church Fathers transformed the study of nature into a theological enterprise. The “Book” of Nature became a “bestseller” among clerics and theologians anxious for its knowledge in their search for divine truth. Western Church: Ambrose Eastern Church: Basil

6. How do we listen to God’s “second book”

7. Vlei Church

9. Ocean Church

11. St Francis Day service