The doctrine of creation endures as a bedrock doctrine in Christianity. Believing that God created the world teaches us something vital about God, about the world, and about ourselves. We learn to worship God as creator. We learn to appreciate the world as a gift. We learn our place within this world as the image of God. The Christian doctrine of creation guides our worship of God, our faith in God, and our obedience to God.

The belief that God created the world can be found in multiple places in the Old Testament including Genesis 1–2, Job 38–41, Psalm 33:6–9, Psalm 104, and Proverbs 8:22–31. In each chapter, the point is not to narrate an exact timeline or the same series of events leading to creation, but to show the relationship between God as creator of the world and the need of the reader or audience today. Job 38–41 says suffering, like creation, is mysterious, but God stays in control of it all. The promise of Psalm 33:6–9 is that the God who spoke creation into existence can rescue His people.

The most famous account of creation, Genesis 1, describes creation as an act of God who turns chaos into cosmos. Creation results from God’s ordering or separating light from dark, waters above from waters below, and water from land, before God fills what was separated with all that is needed for life. This text, serving as an introduction to Genesis, prepares the reader for God’s ongoing presence in the world through the generations leading to Abraham and beyond. God is faithful and remains committed to whatever God created. As sole creator, God perpetuates and preserves what and who God created. Because God is our creator, we can trust in God as our Savior.

The Creator’s Wheel offers a devotional reading of Genesis 1 as an illustration of the divine process in transforming chaos into cosmos in every person.

The Creator’s Wheel, which came out of Rick DuBose’s devotional time, offers a devotional reading of Genesis 1 as an illustration of the divine process in transforming chaos into cosmos in every person. The promise offered by this kind of reading is what God did for creation and what God will do for us, making something beautiful out of the chaos of our lives.

Rick DuBose is not the first person to make a connection between the creation story in Genesis 1 and the salvific work of God among His people. This will be the first time, though, when many readers make that connection. DuBose does not write as a Bible scholar, as a scientist, or as someone pushing a version of creationism. He writes as a pastor with years of experience in successfully guiding the spiritual development of individuals and congregations. If he has found Genesis 1 useful in illustrating a process of spiritual formation, so will the reader.

I have had the privilege of watching Rick DuBose work for some time. He is enthusiastic about creating spiritually healthy churches that create spiritually healthy disciples. The development of spiritual health involves prayer, godly leadership, and robust processes properly aligned with the word of God. Along with his earlier books on prayer and church authority, The Creator’s Wheel explains how the Holy Spirit makes the difference in persons and communities, leading them to reflect the image of Christ.

This book encourages us to trust in the process of the Spirit’s work in our lives based on Genesis 1. We need to be reminded of the importance of creation in understanding salvation. Without the doctrine of creation, we are left adrift in a humanity we do not understand or appreciate. We share no story of our beginnings or purpose, and we are left uncertain as to our ending. Without an understanding of God as creator, we cannot imagine ourselves as creations of God.

All we are left with is to imagine ourselves as accidents of nature, self-made gods, or both. Each view endangers our spiritual development. It is no wonder that, as our culture moves further into a post-Christian era, we cannot agree on the most basic truths about humanity. In time of cultural divisiveness and confusion, we need the Christian doctrine of creation more than ever.

Excerpted from the Foreword to Rick DuBose, The Creator's Wheel: 7 Phases of Godly Transformation (Minneapolis: Chosen Books, 2025). Used by permission.