Story: The tower of Babel
Passage: Genesis 11:1-9
Characters: man, God
Summary: Man had one language. He lived in one place and decided to build a vast city with a tall tower to avoid being dispersed over the Earth. God examined the city. In order to keep them from being able to do anything they wanted, He confused their language and scattered them over all the Earth.
Notes: First of all, this story resonates with me since I plan on going to another culture and learning their language and giving them God's word. This is the origin of languages and most likely it is also the origin of cultural diversity in the world. The issue with the city was not that the tower was supposed to be really tall, but rather that the intention of the people was to make a name for themselves. When we make it our goal to glorify our own name instead of glorifying Christ's name, we are in big trouble. They also were trying to avoid God's call to multiply and fill the Earth. They did not want to disperse, they were happy where they were. God knew that the people were unstoppable when they were united. Today, we have the Spirit and we are called to unity with each other and chrsit in order to be unstoppable for the kingdom of God. But we have the attitude of the Babel aftermath. We don't want this unity. We don't understand how we can have this unity. This unity which necessitated an intervention from God is now a foreign concept for us. God decided the best way to scatter the people and help keep them under control was by giving them different languages. And the need for translators began!
Questions: How many languages did God create? Were they similar to modern languages at all? Who was the first multilingual person and did it take long to occur? What could humanity have achieved without God's intervention? In our increasingly global society, we see more and more progress in technology and science. Are we achieving the Babel mindset once again? If humanity had been allowed to unify, how evil would the result have been? How can Christians better unify to make a name for God?
Lessons: Unity is an extremely powerful concept. We must remember that! We are called to unity with other believers and with Christ. If we avoid this unity we are rejecting some of the power which God is giving us. We must also remember to glorify God and not ourselves. When we bring glory to God, He lets us unify in Him and His power in order to change the world!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Nations Descended from Noah
Story: Nations descended from Noah
Passage: Genesis 10
Characters: Lots of people
Interaction: The descendants of Noah are listed.
Notes: Several people stand out in this passage. Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. What does this mean? Did Nimrod serve the Lord or oppose Him? Casluhim was the father of the Philistines. Interestingly, he is in the line of Egypt. Peleg means division because the Earth was divided in his time. Each clan is said to have its own language. This is the first mention of language in the Bible. The tower of Babel has not been mentioned yet, but I suspect it would have happened early in this list of descendents since they all had their own language.
Questions: What made Nimrod mighty? How did he hunt "before the Lord"? What divided the Earth? Why was the division of the Earth necessary? Did these descendents of Noah walk with God?
Lessons: Not too much can be pulled out of this. What I see is that God's plan was very diverse. He was doing things in all of these people's lives. They were very special to be mentioned in this account, yet we know almost nothing about them! God can use anyone in any time to further His will.
Passage: Genesis 10
Characters: Lots of people
Interaction: The descendants of Noah are listed.
Notes: Several people stand out in this passage. Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. What does this mean? Did Nimrod serve the Lord or oppose Him? Casluhim was the father of the Philistines. Interestingly, he is in the line of Egypt. Peleg means division because the Earth was divided in his time. Each clan is said to have its own language. This is the first mention of language in the Bible. The tower of Babel has not been mentioned yet, but I suspect it would have happened early in this list of descendents since they all had their own language.
Questions: What made Nimrod mighty? How did he hunt "before the Lord"? What divided the Earth? Why was the division of the Earth necessary? Did these descendents of Noah walk with God?
Lessons: Not too much can be pulled out of this. What I see is that God's plan was very diverse. He was doing things in all of these people's lives. They were very special to be mentioned in this account, yet we know almost nothing about them! God can use anyone in any time to further His will.
The Test
Hey what's up?
If anyone is actually following this blog, they might have noticed that I have not posted since Wednesday. This is because I went to our factory in Illinois on Thursday and Friday and thus got no lunch break and did not have time to get a passage in and a blog post in. But that brings me to this week. My second week of work went much better! I was able to be busy most of the time and I learn a whole lot better by doing things, so I learned a lot! At the end of the week, I got to spend the weekend visiting London and some friends! That was awesome as well! Over all it was a pretty good week. God taught me some stuff about giving this week. I feel like most Christians give because they know they are supposed to. I also believe that is wrong! We shouldn't give because we are supposed to, we should give because it is not our money to keep! God lets us be a part of what He does by lett ing us be the agent for His use of money. He gives us money so that we can use it to show His love! When we don't do that, we make it our god. This is the commandment that the rich young man in Mark 10 was not able to keep. He would not sell his possessions because they were more valuable to him than God was. In our western culture, we must be very very careful not to fall into this trap! Our culture tells us that is is about us, what we want, what we need to do to gain status. If we save our money right, we can use it to live well until we die! But I can find nothing in the Bible that says that that is how we are to use our money. In Malachi 3, God says that the people were robbing Him with their tithes and offerings. He tells them in verses 10-14 to, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty. " When we don't use our money to serve God, we rob him and keep His storehouse empty! The harvest is ripe, but instead of gathering the harvest, or even funding the harvesting, we would rather feed ourselves junk food until we die. I was just convicted by this, and I hope you are too. Anyway, that is what I've been learning. Until next week!
If anyone is actually following this blog, they might have noticed that I have not posted since Wednesday. This is because I went to our factory in Illinois on Thursday and Friday and thus got no lunch break and did not have time to get a passage in and a blog post in. But that brings me to this week. My second week of work went much better! I was able to be busy most of the time and I learn a whole lot better by doing things, so I learned a lot! At the end of the week, I got to spend the weekend visiting London and some friends! That was awesome as well! Over all it was a pretty good week. God taught me some stuff about giving this week. I feel like most Christians give because they know they are supposed to. I also believe that is wrong! We shouldn't give because we are supposed to, we should give because it is not our money to keep! God lets us be a part of what He does by lett ing us be the agent for His use of money. He gives us money so that we can use it to show His love! When we don't do that, we make it our god. This is the commandment that the rich young man in Mark 10 was not able to keep. He would not sell his possessions because they were more valuable to him than God was. In our western culture, we must be very very careful not to fall into this trap! Our culture tells us that is is about us, what we want, what we need to do to gain status. If we save our money right, we can use it to live well until we die! But I can find nothing in the Bible that says that that is how we are to use our money. In Malachi 3, God says that the people were robbing Him with their tithes and offerings. He tells them in verses 10-14 to, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty. " When we don't use our money to serve God, we rob him and keep His storehouse empty! The harvest is ripe, but instead of gathering the harvest, or even funding the harvesting, we would rather feed ourselves junk food until we die. I was just convicted by this, and I hope you are too. Anyway, that is what I've been learning. Until next week!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
God's Covenant With Noah
Story: God's Covenant With Noah
Passage: Genesis 8:20-9:17
Summary: Noah immediately sacrificed clean animals to God after the flood. The Lord was pleased and promised to never curse/dishonor the ground or kill every living creature as long as the Earth survives. God gave Noah permission to kill and eat animals. But the life, the blood, could not be eaten. God cursed anyone who shed the blood of man. God provided the rainbow as a symbol of His promise to never flood the Earth again.
Notes: Noah immediately offered a sacrifice to the God who had just destroyed and rebuilt an entire planet. I don't blame Him! He had just witnessed the power of God and he was heavily moved by it! He also would have been moved by God's merciful decision to let him survive. It is interesting to me that God viewed the flood as having cursed or dishonored the ground. God's covenant was with humans, animals, and the earth itself. All of creation was protected by God. I feel like God had love for all of His creation, which makes sense! He just showed a crazy, undeserving love for man, I find it funny that God gave Noah the right to eat animals right after Noah had spent months on a boat with them. You would think that Noah would have appreciated animals at this point, but maybe God knew that Noah wouldn't go animal killing crazy and make some of the sparse species extinct right away. Who know! The importance of not eating blood is significant to me. Blood carries life. Without blood, there is no life. Jesus coveered our spiritual nakedness with His blood, that is His life. We have been covered with His life. Now this use of the word life is different than saying someone had a tough life. This use is life, the vibrant energy which we all have which really can't be explained. That is what Christ covered our nakedness with! The rainbow would have been a very significant reminder of God's promise to Noah and his family. They had just just witnesses total destruction via a rainstorm, I imagine there was some apprehension whenever the clouds gathered and rain began falling. But then they would see the rainbow and remember that God was not going to flood the Earth again!
Questions: Why did God make a promise to the inanimate ground? How does God's mankilling curse show itself today? What is the significance of a rainbow?
Lessons: God's promises still affect us today. It is important to learn from Noah and how he reacted to seeing the power and holiness of God. He made sacrifices to God immediately! We need to react to God's holiness by giving Him all of us as living sacrifices!
Passage: Genesis 8:20-9:17
Summary: Noah immediately sacrificed clean animals to God after the flood. The Lord was pleased and promised to never curse/dishonor the ground or kill every living creature as long as the Earth survives. God gave Noah permission to kill and eat animals. But the life, the blood, could not be eaten. God cursed anyone who shed the blood of man. God provided the rainbow as a symbol of His promise to never flood the Earth again.
Notes: Noah immediately offered a sacrifice to the God who had just destroyed and rebuilt an entire planet. I don't blame Him! He had just witnessed the power of God and he was heavily moved by it! He also would have been moved by God's merciful decision to let him survive. It is interesting to me that God viewed the flood as having cursed or dishonored the ground. God's covenant was with humans, animals, and the earth itself. All of creation was protected by God. I feel like God had love for all of His creation, which makes sense! He just showed a crazy, undeserving love for man, I find it funny that God gave Noah the right to eat animals right after Noah had spent months on a boat with them. You would think that Noah would have appreciated animals at this point, but maybe God knew that Noah wouldn't go animal killing crazy and make some of the sparse species extinct right away. Who know! The importance of not eating blood is significant to me. Blood carries life. Without blood, there is no life. Jesus coveered our spiritual nakedness with His blood, that is His life. We have been covered with His life. Now this use of the word life is different than saying someone had a tough life. This use is life, the vibrant energy which we all have which really can't be explained. That is what Christ covered our nakedness with! The rainbow would have been a very significant reminder of God's promise to Noah and his family. They had just just witnesses total destruction via a rainstorm, I imagine there was some apprehension whenever the clouds gathered and rain began falling. But then they would see the rainbow and remember that God was not going to flood the Earth again!
Questions: Why did God make a promise to the inanimate ground? How does God's mankilling curse show itself today? What is the significance of a rainbow?
Lessons: God's promises still affect us today. It is important to learn from Noah and how he reacted to seeing the power and holiness of God. He made sacrifices to God immediately! We need to react to God's holiness by giving Him all of us as living sacrifices!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The Flood Subsides
Story: The Flood Subsides
Passage: Genesis 8:1-19
Characters: God, Noah, Some birds, Animals
Summary: The waters began to subside. Noah sent out a raven to test for dry ground and nothing happened. He sent out a dove, and nothing happened. He sent out the dove again and it found an olive branch so he knew there was land out there. He and his family and all the animals disembarked and were commanded by God to multiply and fill the earth.
Notes: I love that God dried the earth with wind. God is able to work outside of physics if He so chooses, but many times, he chooses to work miracles by using the laws of physics which He created in ways they wouldn't normally be used. For example, here He used convective drying! I find it interesting that the ark came to rest on the mountains, but the mountains weren't even visible for another two and a half months. Noah sat there for forty days before he sent out a raven. Then he sent the first dove before waiting a week to send it out again. The fact that the dove found an olive leaf means that the ground was dry for long enough for an olive tree to start growing. The fact that Noah was sending birds out to find dry land seems to imply that he couldn't see the ground/sea from the ark. Was he really cooped up in the ark for nearly 7 months without being able to see the earth? It took almost 3 months for the earth to dry up completely. It is interesting that the flood ended on the first day of the year. We celebrate New Years today as a time to have new beginnings. We set goals and basically reset and start again. So it is interesting that the earth started again on the first day of the year. Another interesting thing is that before humanity got a new start, a dove flew over the waters. In Genesis 1, before humanity got it's first start, the spirit, which is characterized as a dove in the New Testament, hovered over the waters. I don't know if that is significant or not, but I do find it interesting. This really was God giving us a new start. I am also still fascinated by the detail in the numbers of the story. This story could be easily drawn graphically to illustrate each stage of the flood. Can we use this detail to confirm the story? Could those numbers be prophetic? (Harold Camping thought so and we all saw how that turned out lol) The passage says that the animals and people left the ark as families. This means that the pairs stuck together which is obviously vital for them to multiply and fill the earth.
As I finished typing this section, I realized that the flood subsiding really did symbolize creation in a lot of ways. We saw the dove flew over the waters, but also theoretically, the drying process would have started when the rain ended and light broke through. The rain, which connected the water above with the water beneath would have seperated, the water beneath would have parted and dry ground would have appeared. Then we see that plants began growing. Finally, animals and humans walked the earth again. The flood was the destruction of creation, but the flood subsiding was God's recreation. This might be far fetched, but I suspect there is something here.
Questions: Why so much detail? How did the dove know to pick a leaf and bring it back? Where did all of the water drain to? Were fish able to survive the flood on their own? Did Noah let the animals start breeding on the ark?
Lessons: Not all of God's miracles are instant. Sometimes He takes months to work. We need to be patient and trust that He is working and in the meantime, continue to obey and follow Him and walk step by step with Him.
Passage: Genesis 8:1-19
Characters: God, Noah, Some birds, Animals
Summary: The waters began to subside. Noah sent out a raven to test for dry ground and nothing happened. He sent out a dove, and nothing happened. He sent out the dove again and it found an olive branch so he knew there was land out there. He and his family and all the animals disembarked and were commanded by God to multiply and fill the earth.
Notes: I love that God dried the earth with wind. God is able to work outside of physics if He so chooses, but many times, he chooses to work miracles by using the laws of physics which He created in ways they wouldn't normally be used. For example, here He used convective drying! I find it interesting that the ark came to rest on the mountains, but the mountains weren't even visible for another two and a half months. Noah sat there for forty days before he sent out a raven. Then he sent the first dove before waiting a week to send it out again. The fact that the dove found an olive leaf means that the ground was dry for long enough for an olive tree to start growing. The fact that Noah was sending birds out to find dry land seems to imply that he couldn't see the ground/sea from the ark. Was he really cooped up in the ark for nearly 7 months without being able to see the earth? It took almost 3 months for the earth to dry up completely. It is interesting that the flood ended on the first day of the year. We celebrate New Years today as a time to have new beginnings. We set goals and basically reset and start again. So it is interesting that the earth started again on the first day of the year. Another interesting thing is that before humanity got a new start, a dove flew over the waters. In Genesis 1, before humanity got it's first start, the spirit, which is characterized as a dove in the New Testament, hovered over the waters. I don't know if that is significant or not, but I do find it interesting. This really was God giving us a new start. I am also still fascinated by the detail in the numbers of the story. This story could be easily drawn graphically to illustrate each stage of the flood. Can we use this detail to confirm the story? Could those numbers be prophetic? (Harold Camping thought so and we all saw how that turned out lol) The passage says that the animals and people left the ark as families. This means that the pairs stuck together which is obviously vital for them to multiply and fill the earth.
As I finished typing this section, I realized that the flood subsiding really did symbolize creation in a lot of ways. We saw the dove flew over the waters, but also theoretically, the drying process would have started when the rain ended and light broke through. The rain, which connected the water above with the water beneath would have seperated, the water beneath would have parted and dry ground would have appeared. Then we see that plants began growing. Finally, animals and humans walked the earth again. The flood was the destruction of creation, but the flood subsiding was God's recreation. This might be far fetched, but I suspect there is something here.
Questions: Why so much detail? How did the dove know to pick a leaf and bring it back? Where did all of the water drain to? Were fish able to survive the flood on their own? Did Noah let the animals start breeding on the ark?
Lessons: Not all of God's miracles are instant. Sometimes He takes months to work. We need to be patient and trust that He is working and in the meantime, continue to obey and follow Him and walk step by step with Him.
Monday, January 23, 2012
May the workforce be with you, for a little while at least
Hey hey, this is my weekly update. So this week was my first week at my new job. I am a mechanical engineer at a company that designs beverage canning factories. This week was tough for me because I knew nothing about what to do. I like knowing exactly what's expected of me and how to do it. I knew neither of these. I didn't know terminology, process, the little details of how things were done. I had told myself I wouldn't be an engineer and here I am as an engineer. I am trying to learn to readjust my mindset and look at engineering as a way to worship God. This is not a task I am doing for man but for God. Knowing that is different than believing it though and it has been tough. So any prayer this week would be greatly appreciated as I continue to learn this lesson.
I also had a rough day yesterday, yet I still learned more about my relationship with Christ through my relationship with London. Basically, I had had a bad attitude earlier in the day and had been cold about something I should have been excited about. So naturally, London was hurt and when we talked on the phone, we were both in bad moods. I honestly felt a little attacked, although looking back, she wasn't trying to attack me. I knew enough to not attack back, but I got defensive. It is the natural thing to do when you feel attacked. But that just made it worse. I would try to accept responsibility, and then explain myself. This caused issues and made the mess bigger. Later I asked God why I couldn't defend myself when I was attacked, and He showed me how Christ taught to turn the other cheek when someone strikes you, and He lived out that message. He was accused of all kinds of sins wrongly and He hadn't even sinned in His life and He responded with total silence. He did not accept responsibility because he was not responsible, and he did not defend Himself. These examples are far more extreme than what I experienced of course since London did not want to attack me, I just felt like she was, but the lesson was still learned! When I feel wronged in my relationship with London, I do not have the right to explain myself. It does not have to be fair. I am supposed to be Christlike and accept responsibility and give up my right to defend and just show love. This will take some time to figure out of course, but the process has started.
I also had a rough day yesterday, yet I still learned more about my relationship with Christ through my relationship with London. Basically, I had had a bad attitude earlier in the day and had been cold about something I should have been excited about. So naturally, London was hurt and when we talked on the phone, we were both in bad moods. I honestly felt a little attacked, although looking back, she wasn't trying to attack me. I knew enough to not attack back, but I got defensive. It is the natural thing to do when you feel attacked. But that just made it worse. I would try to accept responsibility, and then explain myself. This caused issues and made the mess bigger. Later I asked God why I couldn't defend myself when I was attacked, and He showed me how Christ taught to turn the other cheek when someone strikes you, and He lived out that message. He was accused of all kinds of sins wrongly and He hadn't even sinned in His life and He responded with total silence. He did not accept responsibility because he was not responsible, and he did not defend Himself. These examples are far more extreme than what I experienced of course since London did not want to attack me, I just felt like she was, but the lesson was still learned! When I feel wronged in my relationship with London, I do not have the right to explain myself. It does not have to be fair. I am supposed to be Christlike and accept responsibility and give up my right to defend and just show love. This will take some time to figure out of course, but the process has started.
Noah and the flood
Story: Noah and the flood
Passage: Genesis 6:9-7:24
Characters: The Lord, Noah, Noah's family
Summary: Noah was righteous but the earth was corrupt. God decided to destroy all flesh because they filled the earth with violence. He had Noah build an ark and fill it with animals and food. God flooded the earth and Noah and his family survived the flood in the ark. The rain fell for 40 days and water covered the earth for 150 days.
Notes: Noah stood out from his culture. He trusted God and walked with Him even when God did not make human sense. Noah made God his god. The earth was corrupted by humans, yet God wanted to destroy anything with the breath of life in it. I feel like this destruction of His creation would have been difficult and it is significant that God felt that it had come to this. But it had to be done because it was the just thing to do and God is a just God. However, God showed humanity mercy again by allowing Noah and his family to survive. There were only two of a kind of unclean animals on the ark, but there were seven pairs of unclean animals. This would mean there were more clean animals in the new world. Noah was 600 when the flood occurred. The exact day of the flood is given in the passage relative to Noah's birth. God personally was taking care of Noah. All Noah had to do was build the boat. God brought all the animals to him over a period of seven days. Then He closed the ark Himself. There is so much detail in this story compared to the others, the depth of the water, the time it rained, the time it took for the water to recede, the day the flood started, etc. Either there is some imprtance here we don't realize yet or Noah was just really good at writing things down that happened. My top two guesses are either that these are things we will be able to confirm someday, or Noah was the world's first journaler. I bet if he had a blog, it would be crazy detailed and entertaining. "Today I am 599 years old and 374 days. I just added one and a half cubits of height to this thing God told me to build. My wife made an awesome dinner of plantains today. I ate exactly 3." But I digress. The text says that God destroyed all creatures on the face of the earth. By a loophole though, Noah and his family were above the face of the earth. I don't know if that was intentional by God or if it just happened that way, but I found the wording in the end of chapter 7 interesting because of that.
Questions: Why so much detail? Why the exact date the flood started? What made animals clean back then? Was it the same criteria we see in the Mosaic law? How did Noah's friends react to his strange actions? His family? How would I react if God told me to do something outrageous like that? Would I acknowlege that God is my god or would I try to follow my own wisdom?
Lessons: Obedience to God is very important. If Noah did not walk with God and follow his unusual instructions, he would not have survived. If he was worried about his image or his success with his friends, he would have been wiped out. Walking with God means obeying Him even when it makes zero sense, seems to reflect poorly on you, and does not advance your status. We are not meant to follow earthly logic, but Godly logic, which is the logic which created earthly logic.
Passage: Genesis 6:9-7:24
Characters: The Lord, Noah, Noah's family
Summary: Noah was righteous but the earth was corrupt. God decided to destroy all flesh because they filled the earth with violence. He had Noah build an ark and fill it with animals and food. God flooded the earth and Noah and his family survived the flood in the ark. The rain fell for 40 days and water covered the earth for 150 days.
Notes: Noah stood out from his culture. He trusted God and walked with Him even when God did not make human sense. Noah made God his god. The earth was corrupted by humans, yet God wanted to destroy anything with the breath of life in it. I feel like this destruction of His creation would have been difficult and it is significant that God felt that it had come to this. But it had to be done because it was the just thing to do and God is a just God. However, God showed humanity mercy again by allowing Noah and his family to survive. There were only two of a kind of unclean animals on the ark, but there were seven pairs of unclean animals. This would mean there were more clean animals in the new world. Noah was 600 when the flood occurred. The exact day of the flood is given in the passage relative to Noah's birth. God personally was taking care of Noah. All Noah had to do was build the boat. God brought all the animals to him over a period of seven days. Then He closed the ark Himself. There is so much detail in this story compared to the others, the depth of the water, the time it rained, the time it took for the water to recede, the day the flood started, etc. Either there is some imprtance here we don't realize yet or Noah was just really good at writing things down that happened. My top two guesses are either that these are things we will be able to confirm someday, or Noah was the world's first journaler. I bet if he had a blog, it would be crazy detailed and entertaining. "Today I am 599 years old and 374 days. I just added one and a half cubits of height to this thing God told me to build. My wife made an awesome dinner of plantains today. I ate exactly 3." But I digress. The text says that God destroyed all creatures on the face of the earth. By a loophole though, Noah and his family were above the face of the earth. I don't know if that was intentional by God or if it just happened that way, but I found the wording in the end of chapter 7 interesting because of that.
Questions: Why so much detail? Why the exact date the flood started? What made animals clean back then? Was it the same criteria we see in the Mosaic law? How did Noah's friends react to his strange actions? His family? How would I react if God told me to do something outrageous like that? Would I acknowlege that God is my god or would I try to follow my own wisdom?
Lessons: Obedience to God is very important. If Noah did not walk with God and follow his unusual instructions, he would not have survived. If he was worried about his image or his success with his friends, he would have been wiped out. Walking with God means obeying Him even when it makes zero sense, seems to reflect poorly on you, and does not advance your status. We are not meant to follow earthly logic, but Godly logic, which is the logic which created earthly logic.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Increasing Corruption on Earth
Story: Increasing Corruption on Earth
Passage: Genesis 6:1-8
Characters: Man, God, Nephilim, sons of God, daughters of man, Noah
Interaction: Sons of God took wives from the daughters of men. God was not happy and shortened the life of man. The children of these unusual marriages were mighty men, famous and renowned. The Lord saw how evil man was and regretted creating him. God decided to wipe out anything that was alive. But Noah found favor with God.
Notes: Apparently some kind of heavenly creatures came to Earth and married women. This was obviously detestable to God and He began to regret even creating life. Verse 5 says that every intention fo the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This is very harsh, but if we think about it, is is true today as well. Man was meant to carry the image of God and bring glory to God. But instead, humanity tried to be their own God and glorify themselves. These creatures He created to worship Him and live with Him had rejected Him and worshipped themselves. When man decided to ignore His purpose, God decided to get rid of mankind. This was the just thing to do. However, we see a glimmer of hope when Noah is mentioned as finding favor in the eyes of God. As we have seen so far, even when man turned his back on God, God showed love and mercy to us. Even here, when God is regretting even creating man, there is a glimmer of hope. It is also interesting to note that God was going to destroy animals as well. Animals were not created in the image of God, but they too were cursed by the fall and thus they had been marred from their original intent and were going to be destroyed as well.
Questions: Who were the sons of God mentioned here? Could this interaction between heaven and Earth be the cause of mythology involving marriages between gods and humans? Did the Nephilim survive the coming flood? How did Noah's character differ from those around him and why did it differ? If God is all knowing, wouldn't He have known that humanity would turn away from Him before He created us? Why did He go ahead and create us with that knowlege?
Lessons: The only lessons I can pull away from this is that we are depserately wicked when we do not make God our god. When we rule our own lives, we grieve God who gave us life. We need to strive in our live to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. As we continue to read about Noah, we should try to glean what we can about his character and how he found this favor with God.
Passage: Genesis 6:1-8
Characters: Man, God, Nephilim, sons of God, daughters of man, Noah
Interaction: Sons of God took wives from the daughters of men. God was not happy and shortened the life of man. The children of these unusual marriages were mighty men, famous and renowned. The Lord saw how evil man was and regretted creating him. God decided to wipe out anything that was alive. But Noah found favor with God.
Notes: Apparently some kind of heavenly creatures came to Earth and married women. This was obviously detestable to God and He began to regret even creating life. Verse 5 says that every intention fo the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This is very harsh, but if we think about it, is is true today as well. Man was meant to carry the image of God and bring glory to God. But instead, humanity tried to be their own God and glorify themselves. These creatures He created to worship Him and live with Him had rejected Him and worshipped themselves. When man decided to ignore His purpose, God decided to get rid of mankind. This was the just thing to do. However, we see a glimmer of hope when Noah is mentioned as finding favor in the eyes of God. As we have seen so far, even when man turned his back on God, God showed love and mercy to us. Even here, when God is regretting even creating man, there is a glimmer of hope. It is also interesting to note that God was going to destroy animals as well. Animals were not created in the image of God, but they too were cursed by the fall and thus they had been marred from their original intent and were going to be destroyed as well.
Questions: Who were the sons of God mentioned here? Could this interaction between heaven and Earth be the cause of mythology involving marriages between gods and humans? Did the Nephilim survive the coming flood? How did Noah's character differ from those around him and why did it differ? If God is all knowing, wouldn't He have known that humanity would turn away from Him before He created us? Why did He go ahead and create us with that knowlege?
Lessons: The only lessons I can pull away from this is that we are depserately wicked when we do not make God our god. When we rule our own lives, we grieve God who gave us life. We need to strive in our live to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. As we continue to read about Noah, we should try to glean what we can about his character and how he found this favor with God.
Adam's descendants to Noah
Story: Adam's descendants to Noah
Passage: Genesis 5
Characters: Lots of people
Interaction: There is actually very little interaction here. This is a list of the descendants of Adam through the line of Seth.
Notes: While there is not much going on here, there are a few things to note. Verse 3 describes Adam's son as someone in his own likeness and after his image. This is similar to how God described Adam when He created him. This is the first indication of how we are children of God. Verse 5 is interesting to me. After all of the detail and beauty that is described about the creation of man and the beginning of Adam, his death is described in the abrupt cold words, "and he died". There is no beauty here as this was not God's intention for man, but rather a result of the curse of sin. The death of every person is described the same way except for Enoch. Enoch is an interesting person to read about. We know very little about him other than that he walked with God and did not die but was taken by God. The phrase "walked with God" in the Septuagint means "pleased God". As we will read in the next chapter, humanity was not pleasing God very much at this point so it is significant that Enoch pleased God and that as a result, God took him and he did not die. When Noah was born, his father Lamech named him because he said that Noah would bring them relief from their work and the toil of their hands. While Noah's life did bring about a revitalization and a promise for the Earth, it came through the destruction of all of humanity except for his family. So this name was accurate, but not in the way that Lamech was thinking. I'm not sure why this is, but Noah had his sons after he was 500 which is significantly different than everyone else mentioned in this passage. This is the line of Seth. Seth was not the firstborn of Adam, yet this was the lineage which God had blessed. According to the culture, Seth did not deserve this special treatment and yet God gave it to him anyway.
Questions: How many sons and daughters were people having? How quickly was the Earth being populated? Were there people following and pleasing God in the line of Cain?
Lessons: We can learn a little bit from Enoch. Even though we don't know much about him, we know he walked with God and pleased God. Our goal in life should be to please God and walk with him in his will.
Passage: Genesis 5
Characters: Lots of people
Interaction: There is actually very little interaction here. This is a list of the descendants of Adam through the line of Seth.
Notes: While there is not much going on here, there are a few things to note. Verse 3 describes Adam's son as someone in his own likeness and after his image. This is similar to how God described Adam when He created him. This is the first indication of how we are children of God. Verse 5 is interesting to me. After all of the detail and beauty that is described about the creation of man and the beginning of Adam, his death is described in the abrupt cold words, "and he died". There is no beauty here as this was not God's intention for man, but rather a result of the curse of sin. The death of every person is described the same way except for Enoch. Enoch is an interesting person to read about. We know very little about him other than that he walked with God and did not die but was taken by God. The phrase "walked with God" in the Septuagint means "pleased God". As we will read in the next chapter, humanity was not pleasing God very much at this point so it is significant that Enoch pleased God and that as a result, God took him and he did not die. When Noah was born, his father Lamech named him because he said that Noah would bring them relief from their work and the toil of their hands. While Noah's life did bring about a revitalization and a promise for the Earth, it came through the destruction of all of humanity except for his family. So this name was accurate, but not in the way that Lamech was thinking. I'm not sure why this is, but Noah had his sons after he was 500 which is significantly different than everyone else mentioned in this passage. This is the line of Seth. Seth was not the firstborn of Adam, yet this was the lineage which God had blessed. According to the culture, Seth did not deserve this special treatment and yet God gave it to him anyway.
Questions: How many sons and daughters were people having? How quickly was the Earth being populated? Were there people following and pleasing God in the line of Cain?
Lessons: We can learn a little bit from Enoch. Even though we don't know much about him, we know he walked with God and pleased God. Our goal in life should be to please God and walk with him in his will.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Cain and Abel
Story: Cain and Abel
Passage: Genesis 4
Characters: Adam and Eve (4:1), Cain (4:1), Abel (4:2), Lamech (4:18)
Interaction/Summary: Eve gave birth to Cain. first and then Abel. Both sons brought sacrifices to God but God only accepted Abel's. Cain got angry and deceived and killed Abel. God confronted Cain and Cain tried to lie to God. God cursed Cain but still protected him. Cain ran away and was the forefather of a lot of people. Eve bore another son and named him Seth. People began to call on the Lord. Lamech, on of Cain's descendants, killed a man and arrogantly bragged about it to his wives.
Thoughts: Cain worked the ground whereas Abel kept sheep. We don't know exactly why God rejected Cain's offering but it is implied that Cain did not give his best fruits and vegetables to God. Cain was not necessarily angry that God rejected his offering. I think he was mad that his younger brother's was accepted over his. Ancient cultures placed a lot of weight on birth order. AS the first born, Cain had more status than Abel. As we will see continually throughout Genesis though, God could care less about birth order. In fact, as we read through the entire Bible we will see that God could care less about any earthly cultural standard we use to ascribe status and glory to ourselves. There are only two statuses in the kingdom of God. God who deserves glory, and creation, which gives Him glory. I find it interesting that God actually warned Cain before the murder that he would be tempted to sin. He even promised that if Cain did right, he would be accepted, which literally is worded as his face would be lifted up. God wanted him to be happy even though he had just given a bad offering. God also told Cain to rule over sin. This tells us that we are meant to have authority over sin. Cain lied to God's face when God asked where abel was. When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not lie, they just shifted the blame. Having been born in a fallen world, Cain probably did not appreciate the holiness and all-knowingness of God so he tried to lie. His response was either arrogant or fearful. God cursed him. God's curse took away Cain's entire livelihood. Cain worked the ground according to the beginning of the chapter and now the ground would not produce for him. He recognized that he would be killed for what he did once he left the Lord's presence. But God did not intend to kill him. God showed love and mercy to Cain by protecting him and promising to fiercely avenge anyone who harmed him. God showed love to Cain immediately after he killed his brother. He destroyed someone made in God's image and God's response was to love him and show him mercy! Cain began to have descendents. Of interest are Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain. They were the fathers of tent-dwelling livestock-keepers, musicians, and metalworkers respectively. Notice that none of them worked the ground. Cains curse continued through the generations. Notice also that these occupations took a lot of skill and art. God actually talks about or references these occupations throughout scripture. So God banished them from farming, but He provided them with jobs which were still very technical and noble and allowed them to use their creative power. The passage gives a short anecdote about Lamech killing someone who had wronged him. His response was not one of guilt, but of pride as he tried to include his own curse for anyone who harms him. The passage then turns back to Adam and Eve as they have another son named Seth who replaces Abel. It is interesting that while this passage is mostly about Cain and his family, it starts and ends with Adam and Eve. After a brief rabbit trail, the story is back on track and ready to continue. The passage ends by saying at that time, people began to call on the LORD. In Eden there might not have been a need to call on the Lord for help. The Lord lived in perfect unity with humanity. In the fallen world, people realized that they could not control things on their own and they began to call on the God they had turned their backs on.
Passage: Genesis 4
Characters: Adam and Eve (4:1), Cain (4:1), Abel (4:2), Lamech (4:18)
Interaction/Summary: Eve gave birth to Cain. first and then Abel. Both sons brought sacrifices to God but God only accepted Abel's. Cain got angry and deceived and killed Abel. God confronted Cain and Cain tried to lie to God. God cursed Cain but still protected him. Cain ran away and was the forefather of a lot of people. Eve bore another son and named him Seth. People began to call on the Lord. Lamech, on of Cain's descendants, killed a man and arrogantly bragged about it to his wives.
Thoughts: Cain worked the ground whereas Abel kept sheep. We don't know exactly why God rejected Cain's offering but it is implied that Cain did not give his best fruits and vegetables to God. Cain was not necessarily angry that God rejected his offering. I think he was mad that his younger brother's was accepted over his. Ancient cultures placed a lot of weight on birth order. AS the first born, Cain had more status than Abel. As we will see continually throughout Genesis though, God could care less about birth order. In fact, as we read through the entire Bible we will see that God could care less about any earthly cultural standard we use to ascribe status and glory to ourselves. There are only two statuses in the kingdom of God. God who deserves glory, and creation, which gives Him glory. I find it interesting that God actually warned Cain before the murder that he would be tempted to sin. He even promised that if Cain did right, he would be accepted, which literally is worded as his face would be lifted up. God wanted him to be happy even though he had just given a bad offering. God also told Cain to rule over sin. This tells us that we are meant to have authority over sin. Cain lied to God's face when God asked where abel was. When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not lie, they just shifted the blame. Having been born in a fallen world, Cain probably did not appreciate the holiness and all-knowingness of God so he tried to lie. His response was either arrogant or fearful. God cursed him. God's curse took away Cain's entire livelihood. Cain worked the ground according to the beginning of the chapter and now the ground would not produce for him. He recognized that he would be killed for what he did once he left the Lord's presence. But God did not intend to kill him. God showed love and mercy to Cain by protecting him and promising to fiercely avenge anyone who harmed him. God showed love to Cain immediately after he killed his brother. He destroyed someone made in God's image and God's response was to love him and show him mercy! Cain began to have descendents. Of interest are Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain. They were the fathers of tent-dwelling livestock-keepers, musicians, and metalworkers respectively. Notice that none of them worked the ground. Cains curse continued through the generations. Notice also that these occupations took a lot of skill and art. God actually talks about or references these occupations throughout scripture. So God banished them from farming, but He provided them with jobs which were still very technical and noble and allowed them to use their creative power. The passage gives a short anecdote about Lamech killing someone who had wronged him. His response was not one of guilt, but of pride as he tried to include his own curse for anyone who harms him. The passage then turns back to Adam and Eve as they have another son named Seth who replaces Abel. It is interesting that while this passage is mostly about Cain and his family, it starts and ends with Adam and Eve. After a brief rabbit trail, the story is back on track and ready to continue. The passage ends by saying at that time, people began to call on the LORD. In Eden there might not have been a need to call on the Lord for help. The Lord lived in perfect unity with humanity. In the fallen world, people realized that they could not control things on their own and they began to call on the God they had turned their backs on.
Questions: Why did God reject Cain's offering? Why did Cain decide killing Abel was necessary? Why did God grant Cain protection? It sounds like Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel were still living in the presence of the Lord. Did the fall not ruin that immediately? How did God react to Lamech's statement about killing someone? What made people realize their need for God again? Why was this side story about Cain included in the story of the beginning?
Lessons: When we don't give Him our best, we are implying that we deserve the best and not Him. This applies to our lives today and how we give our lives to God. God loves us and provides for us even when we are sinners! God had plans for Cain and his family. If Cain was important enough to God to include in His word to us, then we know how important our messed up lives can be to Him as well. Even with his love and mercy towards Cain, God did punish Cain severely by ultimately removing him from His presence. God loves us, but He does not take sin lightly!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Fall
Story: The Fall
Passage: Genesis 3
Characters: Serpent(1), the woman(1), man(6), God(8), cherubim(24)
Interaction: The serpent twisted God’s words around and convinced the woman to disobey God’s command. She ate the fruit which was forbidden. Then she handed some to Adam who was right next to her. They realized they were naked and were ashamed of their nakedness when God addressed them. God first asked Adam what had happened and he blamed the woman, who then blamed the serpent. God proceeded to curse the serpent first, then the woman, then Adam. God drove them from the garden and banished them.
Notes: Satan subtly changed God’s word and used it out of context in order to deceive the woman. This is something we need to be aware of as I believe it is a tactic he still uses today. I also find it weird that the woman was not weirded out by a talking snake. Is it possible that animals talked then? The woman’s goal was the gain wisdom. She thought the fruit would make her wise. The bible does tell us to pursue wisdom and that wisdom is of far more worth than gold and jewels, but the difference here is that the woman pursued wisdom outside of God. She had perfect fellowship with the creator of the universe! She didn’t need more wisdom than that! But she tried to gain wisdom outside of God and outside of God, the pursuit of wisdom is the result of pride. Adam was there as well but the passage does not say he made an effort to stop her. In fact, he took the fruit when she gave it to him. The author mentions one single immediate effect of the first sin. They realized they were naked and they were ashamed. Now I suspect they were realizing more than just their physical nakedness. I believe that they now saw how inferior they were to the holy ruler of the universe and they felt spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically naked. Shame would be the only logical response to this realization. Their response to the question of God was blame shifting. Their world was now about them and their image. They were naked and were ashamed. They had sinned and were ashamed. They did not want to admit that they had messed up and so they shifted the blame to the next person (or snake) down the line. The serpent was cursed first. He was cursed above all animals, cursed to crawl on the ground and be at odds with humans. Ultimately, man would defeat the snake which we see through Christ. The woman was cursed with more pain in childbearing, with desire for her earthly husband, and she was put under the headship of her husband. It would appear that desire for your spouse is the result of the fall. The man was cursed with the task of hard work being necessary to earn a living. Adam already worked, that was his job was working for the Lord. And the woman already had childbirth and it sounds like it was already painful since verse 10 says He will multiply her pain in childbearing. So the curse for Adam and his wife seem to accentuate the earthly aspects of things they already experienced. There would more pain in childbearing, and now Adam would have to work to survive and not only to please the Lord. (Although the New Testament still says to work as if working for the Lord and not men) Although Adam and the woman, who Adam is now calling Eve, had made clothes out of leaves for themselves, God made them better clothes out of skins. This seems significant to me because up to this point, no one had killed animals. The first animals to be killed were killed by God. Adam and Eve gave in to pride and sinned, turning their back on the God who had created them and provided for them, and God responds by destroying some of His own creation in order to care for and provide for Adam and Eve. This is incredible to me! God showed His amazing love for us as sinners immediately after the fall! The first destructive act of creation was done by God on our behalf! God ends up banishing Adam and Eve from the garden because He wanted to keep them away from the Tree of Life. He didn’t do this because He wanted to keep us from life, but because it was best. Ultimately He wants us to eat from the Tree of Life. The final three chapters of Revelation correspond to the first three chapters of Genesis. In the final 3 chapters of Revelation, the serpent, Satan is referred to specifically as a serpent there, is defeated and destroyed, God recreates a perfect earth and re-establishes us with Him in His presence, and He gives us access to the Tree of Life. It is incredibly beautiful and even the Fall could not keep God from fulfilling His original purpose for us.
Questions: There are obviously a ton of questions about the fall. These are just a few of the ones I jotted down. Why did the serpent address Eve and not Adam? Why was their nakedness the immediate change which is mentioned by the author? Why did God let us sin against Him? Why did God make part of the curse against Eve a desire for Adam? Why did God kill animals to clothe Adam and Eve? Did humans forget the location of the garden quickly? Did people try to get back to it for a while?
Lessons: The first sin was pride. They put themselves before God and tried to act outside of His will. Every sin we commit connects to pride. We try to act outside of God’s will for us. From what I can tell biblically, one of the best ways to fight sin is to actively pursue an understanding of God’s holiness so that we remember with humility where we stand before Him. This focus on God is very much emphasized throughout the New Testament as is humility. When we focus on ourselves and not God, we open the door to sin.
Passage: Genesis 3
Characters: Serpent(1), the woman(1), man(6), God(8), cherubim(24)
Interaction: The serpent twisted God’s words around and convinced the woman to disobey God’s command. She ate the fruit which was forbidden. Then she handed some to Adam who was right next to her. They realized they were naked and were ashamed of their nakedness when God addressed them. God first asked Adam what had happened and he blamed the woman, who then blamed the serpent. God proceeded to curse the serpent first, then the woman, then Adam. God drove them from the garden and banished them.
Notes: Satan subtly changed God’s word and used it out of context in order to deceive the woman. This is something we need to be aware of as I believe it is a tactic he still uses today. I also find it weird that the woman was not weirded out by a talking snake. Is it possible that animals talked then? The woman’s goal was the gain wisdom. She thought the fruit would make her wise. The bible does tell us to pursue wisdom and that wisdom is of far more worth than gold and jewels, but the difference here is that the woman pursued wisdom outside of God. She had perfect fellowship with the creator of the universe! She didn’t need more wisdom than that! But she tried to gain wisdom outside of God and outside of God, the pursuit of wisdom is the result of pride. Adam was there as well but the passage does not say he made an effort to stop her. In fact, he took the fruit when she gave it to him. The author mentions one single immediate effect of the first sin. They realized they were naked and they were ashamed. Now I suspect they were realizing more than just their physical nakedness. I believe that they now saw how inferior they were to the holy ruler of the universe and they felt spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically naked. Shame would be the only logical response to this realization. Their response to the question of God was blame shifting. Their world was now about them and their image. They were naked and were ashamed. They had sinned and were ashamed. They did not want to admit that they had messed up and so they shifted the blame to the next person (or snake) down the line. The serpent was cursed first. He was cursed above all animals, cursed to crawl on the ground and be at odds with humans. Ultimately, man would defeat the snake which we see through Christ. The woman was cursed with more pain in childbearing, with desire for her earthly husband, and she was put under the headship of her husband. It would appear that desire for your spouse is the result of the fall. The man was cursed with the task of hard work being necessary to earn a living. Adam already worked, that was his job was working for the Lord. And the woman already had childbirth and it sounds like it was already painful since verse 10 says He will multiply her pain in childbearing. So the curse for Adam and his wife seem to accentuate the earthly aspects of things they already experienced. There would more pain in childbearing, and now Adam would have to work to survive and not only to please the Lord. (Although the New Testament still says to work as if working for the Lord and not men) Although Adam and the woman, who Adam is now calling Eve, had made clothes out of leaves for themselves, God made them better clothes out of skins. This seems significant to me because up to this point, no one had killed animals. The first animals to be killed were killed by God. Adam and Eve gave in to pride and sinned, turning their back on the God who had created them and provided for them, and God responds by destroying some of His own creation in order to care for and provide for Adam and Eve. This is incredible to me! God showed His amazing love for us as sinners immediately after the fall! The first destructive act of creation was done by God on our behalf! God ends up banishing Adam and Eve from the garden because He wanted to keep them away from the Tree of Life. He didn’t do this because He wanted to keep us from life, but because it was best. Ultimately He wants us to eat from the Tree of Life. The final three chapters of Revelation correspond to the first three chapters of Genesis. In the final 3 chapters of Revelation, the serpent, Satan is referred to specifically as a serpent there, is defeated and destroyed, God recreates a perfect earth and re-establishes us with Him in His presence, and He gives us access to the Tree of Life. It is incredibly beautiful and even the Fall could not keep God from fulfilling His original purpose for us.
Questions: There are obviously a ton of questions about the fall. These are just a few of the ones I jotted down. Why did the serpent address Eve and not Adam? Why was their nakedness the immediate change which is mentioned by the author? Why did God let us sin against Him? Why did God make part of the curse against Eve a desire for Adam? Why did God kill animals to clothe Adam and Eve? Did humans forget the location of the garden quickly? Did people try to get back to it for a while?
Lessons: The first sin was pride. They put themselves before God and tried to act outside of His will. Every sin we commit connects to pride. We try to act outside of God’s will for us. From what I can tell biblically, one of the best ways to fight sin is to actively pursue an understanding of God’s holiness so that we remember with humility where we stand before Him. This focus on God is very much emphasized throughout the New Testament as is humility. When we focus on ourselves and not God, we open the door to sin.
Man and woman
Story: Creation of man and woman
Passage: Genesis 2:4-25
Characters: God (2:4), Adam (2:7/2:20), the woman (2:22)
Interaction: God created a man. God didn’t want the man to be alone but the animals were not good enough helpers. He made a woman from the man’s rib. Adam recognized that the woman was like him, but he still proceeded to name her like he had been doing with the animals, which I think is funny! The man and woman were naked, but felt no shame. Adam is referred to as “the man” until verse 20 at which point the author just begins calling him Adam with no explanation.
Notes: Plants had not yet grown even though they were created on the third day. The passage says that they had not yet grown because it had not rained yet and there was no man to work the earth. God might have created seedlings on the third day and they were alive, but waiting for God to finish creation before they flourished. However, when God created man, the passage says that trees sprung up from the ground. The bible even says that these trees sprung up for two reasons: they were pleasing to the eye, and to provide food. God cares about our pleasure! In the garden though, this pleasure would not have distracted the man from God, but rather it would have added to the total perfect pleasure Adam was experiencing in God’s presence. A huge river flowed out of Eden, big enough to form four major rivers in the area. A garden that is able to produce that much water would have to be huge, which is not how I normally envision the Garden of Eden. Even in a perfect world in the presence of God, God did not want the man to be alone. The man was not really alone since God was with him but God still decided that the man should have a helper. Ponder that for a little bit and the significance of that will hit you. Even in the presence of God, God saw fit to create a woman for the man! After God decided the man needed a helper, he did not create a woman immediately. He led all the animals past Adam and had him name them. After finding no suitable helper there, He created Eve. After this search, the man would have had a profound appreciation for the wonder of creation that God had just made. As the man said, she was the flesh of his flesh and the bone of his bones. She was the same as a man but also totally different. Yet, she was perfectly suited to complement his strengths and weaknesses. Out of every creature on the world, a woman was God’s solution to the man’s need for companionship and help. Adam would have understood this and had a total appreciation for this final creation of God. This is why marriage is so beautiful and sacred. A man was not God’s final plan for what humanity looked like, but rather a man and a woman are meant to work together and become one, unified to serve and glorify God together. This unity is seen later in the church and in our relationship with Christ, but it is first modeled in this final and most beautiful aspect of the amazing creation of God.
Questions: Why did God not grow the plants immediately? Why did man have to exist first? Why did Adam need a helper? Having perfect fellowship with God should be enough. Why is Adam not actually named until verse 20 and who named him? Why does Moses emphasize the nakedness of the man and woman? (we will continue to see this throughout the next story)
Lessons: God wants us to delight in Him through His creation. Women and men are supposed to be together. We are created to work together in unity to fulfill God’s purpose for us. That was His original intent in creating us.
Passage: Genesis 2:4-25
Characters: God (2:4), Adam (2:7/2:20), the woman (2:22)
Interaction: God created a man. God didn’t want the man to be alone but the animals were not good enough helpers. He made a woman from the man’s rib. Adam recognized that the woman was like him, but he still proceeded to name her like he had been doing with the animals, which I think is funny! The man and woman were naked, but felt no shame. Adam is referred to as “the man” until verse 20 at which point the author just begins calling him Adam with no explanation.
Notes: Plants had not yet grown even though they were created on the third day. The passage says that they had not yet grown because it had not rained yet and there was no man to work the earth. God might have created seedlings on the third day and they were alive, but waiting for God to finish creation before they flourished. However, when God created man, the passage says that trees sprung up from the ground. The bible even says that these trees sprung up for two reasons: they were pleasing to the eye, and to provide food. God cares about our pleasure! In the garden though, this pleasure would not have distracted the man from God, but rather it would have added to the total perfect pleasure Adam was experiencing in God’s presence. A huge river flowed out of Eden, big enough to form four major rivers in the area. A garden that is able to produce that much water would have to be huge, which is not how I normally envision the Garden of Eden. Even in a perfect world in the presence of God, God did not want the man to be alone. The man was not really alone since God was with him but God still decided that the man should have a helper. Ponder that for a little bit and the significance of that will hit you. Even in the presence of God, God saw fit to create a woman for the man! After God decided the man needed a helper, he did not create a woman immediately. He led all the animals past Adam and had him name them. After finding no suitable helper there, He created Eve. After this search, the man would have had a profound appreciation for the wonder of creation that God had just made. As the man said, she was the flesh of his flesh and the bone of his bones. She was the same as a man but also totally different. Yet, she was perfectly suited to complement his strengths and weaknesses. Out of every creature on the world, a woman was God’s solution to the man’s need for companionship and help. Adam would have understood this and had a total appreciation for this final creation of God. This is why marriage is so beautiful and sacred. A man was not God’s final plan for what humanity looked like, but rather a man and a woman are meant to work together and become one, unified to serve and glorify God together. This unity is seen later in the church and in our relationship with Christ, but it is first modeled in this final and most beautiful aspect of the amazing creation of God.
Questions: Why did God not grow the plants immediately? Why did man have to exist first? Why did Adam need a helper? Having perfect fellowship with God should be enough. Why is Adam not actually named until verse 20 and who named him? Why does Moses emphasize the nakedness of the man and woman? (we will continue to see this throughout the next story)
Lessons: God wants us to delight in Him through His creation. Women and men are supposed to be together. We are created to work together in unity to fulfill God’s purpose for us. That was His original intent in creating us.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The Beginning!
Before I begin, I have been reading the Bible story by story on my lunch break and jotting down some notes. I am going to post my notes on here daily hopefully! We'll see how that goes though. These are my thoughts, they could be wrong, they probably are. Please comment with your thoughts if something interests you or rubs you the wrong way! Also, with more time I could elaborate on these notes, but at least this first post is pretty much straight up what I wrote down the other day, so sorry.
Story: Creation
Passage: Genesis 1:1-2:3
Characters: God (1:1) Spirit (1:2)
Interaction: God spoke and created light, sky and sea, land, stars and moon, birds and fish, and animals and man. God created man in Their image. He rested afterwards. God said creation was good.
My Notes: God spoke and suddenly physics existed! That is crazy! He spoke again and water separated from the sky! It is no wonder Lazarus rose when Jesus spoke and told him to! It is interesting that animals were also given the breath of life(1:30). Animals and humans were given the same command about eating the plants of the earth. The only distinction between us and animals is that we are created in Their image. If we find differences between us and animals, we can learn a little bit about God. For example, music speaks to humans on an emotional level. We don't see that happen with animals. This tells me that the effect of music on us is something that comes along with God's image. 1:31 begins with behold which means we need to pay attention to what follows. The following statement is that creation is good. That is emphasized for a reason. This is the focal point of the story. The creation account builds up to this final conclusion. It is also interesting that He gave humans dominion over creation. I believe that is because we are formed in Their image. Since God has control over creation, He gave us some control over His creation as well. The passage says that the seventh day God rested and it is to be holy. This is interesting since celebrating the sabbath is not mentioned for hundreds of years. It was holy before God commanded the Israelites to observe the Sabbath.
Questions: Why did God create in the first place? Why were we created in Their image? When did He make the planets? Dry ground was created before the moon and stars. Christ is not mentioned in this passage but He was obviously there. Why was the Spirit mentioned but not Christ? Why did God rest? He shouldn't have needed rest.
Lessons: God is holy! He speaks and things that don't even exist obey! He has given us that power, why don't we use it? Also, why do we not obey? What makes us think we know more and are stronger than a God who speaks the laws of physics into existence?
Story: Creation
Passage: Genesis 1:1-2:3
Characters: God (1:1) Spirit (1:2)
Interaction: God spoke and created light, sky and sea, land, stars and moon, birds and fish, and animals and man. God created man in Their image. He rested afterwards. God said creation was good.
My Notes: God spoke and suddenly physics existed! That is crazy! He spoke again and water separated from the sky! It is no wonder Lazarus rose when Jesus spoke and told him to! It is interesting that animals were also given the breath of life(1:30). Animals and humans were given the same command about eating the plants of the earth. The only distinction between us and animals is that we are created in Their image. If we find differences between us and animals, we can learn a little bit about God. For example, music speaks to humans on an emotional level. We don't see that happen with animals. This tells me that the effect of music on us is something that comes along with God's image. 1:31 begins with behold which means we need to pay attention to what follows. The following statement is that creation is good. That is emphasized for a reason. This is the focal point of the story. The creation account builds up to this final conclusion. It is also interesting that He gave humans dominion over creation. I believe that is because we are formed in Their image. Since God has control over creation, He gave us some control over His creation as well. The passage says that the seventh day God rested and it is to be holy. This is interesting since celebrating the sabbath is not mentioned for hundreds of years. It was holy before God commanded the Israelites to observe the Sabbath.
Questions: Why did God create in the first place? Why were we created in Their image? When did He make the planets? Dry ground was created before the moon and stars. Christ is not mentioned in this passage but He was obviously there. Why was the Spirit mentioned but not Christ? Why did God rest? He shouldn't have needed rest.
Lessons: God is holy! He speaks and things that don't even exist obey! He has given us that power, why don't we use it? Also, why do we not obey? What makes us think we know more and are stronger than a God who speaks the laws of physics into existence?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The morning comes earlier now
So I’m a couple days late on my Sunday post. On Saturday I gave my deep thought for the week so this is just an update on me. I spent the week at my former school visiting London. It was good to see people again and I played lots of disc golf and Frisbee golf. That’s actually about all I did when I wasn’t with London lol. Anyway, it was really good and London and I got to see more and more about how our relationship teaches us about our relationship with God. It really was incredible! We got to talk to some friends about what God is doing in their lives and we had a good night of worship and testimonies. I came home for the weekend and started my job yesterday, but I will save that for next week’s post. See ya!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
My Normal Approach is Useless Here
This week, I have learned even more about how important it is to realize that what we have with God is a relationship and not a formula. A video went viral this week saying that we need to focus on Jesus and not religion. This obviously depends on how you define religion. Jesus says in James 1:27 that "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." So religion is actually meant to be extremely relational. Religion is not getting in our Christian bubbles on Sunday morning and worshiping God. This is important because it helps us in our relationships with other Christians and with God Himself, but true religion involves building relationships with those hurting and rejected by the world, by our culture, even by the church. It breaks my heart when I see Christians trying to avoid associating with people because of their actions or beliefs. We are supposed to live like Christ, and when I look at Christ's life, I see him hanging out and associating with the types of people that I feel like most Christians avoid. We don't need to shine a light in a room that is already lit, we don't need to love those who already understand Christ's love, we are supposed to go to those who have the greatest need for love, to the places that are the darkest! Does this make sense? Is it comfortable? No it doesn't and it isn't! Is it logical? Well no it isn't. But is it really necessary to try to logically explain Christ? Do we need to limit God to the mathematical analytic laws which He created? Can we logically explain how a man falls in love with a woman? As Proverbs 30:18-19 says, "18 “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman." In the same way, we can not explain how Christ loves us. When we try to explain it with human logic and reason, we get a picture that is far inferior to the truth of the situation. This reminded me of this image. (yes I did just use an xkcd comic to illustrate how amazing our relationship with God is lol)
I know I was basically rambling on here incoherently, but I hope you understand my point. Our interaction with God does not involve us following a bunch of rules anymore then it involves a step by step method of "accepting Christ". It can not be explained by human logic because it was created by the one who created human logic. Our logic is flawed, but God's is so pure and perfect that it is able to explain everything about the universe. We limit God by trying to break down and understand His relationship with us and then formulate rules for how we relate with Him. Our normal approach to explaining life is useless when it comes to explaining salvation. All we need to do is do our best to try and grasp the concept of a pure, perfect, holy being leaving heaven and eternity and limiting Himself to Earth and time in order to take our brutal, just, deserved punishment. There is no formula for how to live life other than to try to grasp that infinite love and then show that love to everyone, those close to you and those you've never met. Jesus even says these are the only two commandments we need to know.
Matthew 22:37-40, "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
We are to show that impossible sacrificial love to those who our culture calls the lowest of the lows. This is true religion, and it is impossible to understand or explain.
I know I was basically rambling on here incoherently, but I hope you understand my point. Our interaction with God does not involve us following a bunch of rules anymore then it involves a step by step method of "accepting Christ". It can not be explained by human logic because it was created by the one who created human logic. Our logic is flawed, but God's is so pure and perfect that it is able to explain everything about the universe. We limit God by trying to break down and understand His relationship with us and then formulate rules for how we relate with Him. Our normal approach to explaining life is useless when it comes to explaining salvation. All we need to do is do our best to try and grasp the concept of a pure, perfect, holy being leaving heaven and eternity and limiting Himself to Earth and time in order to take our brutal, just, deserved punishment. There is no formula for how to live life other than to try to grasp that infinite love and then show that love to everyone, those close to you and those you've never met. Jesus even says these are the only two commandments we need to know.
Matthew 22:37-40, "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
We are to show that impossible sacrificial love to those who our culture calls the lowest of the lows. This is true religion, and it is impossible to understand or explain.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Hey what's up y'all!
So this last week I was in Atlanta for the Passion conference. We heard messages from Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, Christine Cain, Francis Chan, and John Piper. Our worship was led by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, Kristian Stanfill, Charlie Hall, David Crowder, Hillsong United, and Lecrae. Needless to say it was very good! Worshipping with 43,000 other believers is incredibly powerful! One of the most powerful moments of worship though was when we sang How Great is Our God in several different languages at once. Singers were present from Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Uganda, and Indonesia. It was really cool! Two of the speakers stood out to me more than the others. Francis Chan impressed me with his genuine love for the word of God and the way he just reads the bible and does what it says without trying to read his own agenda into it. John Piper's sermon might have been really good, but I'm not smart enough to take it all in on one try.
Louie Giglio's sermon during the last session we had impressed me very much though. He spoke about what the will of God is for our lives. He taught from Ephesians 6:19. the will of God is that whenever we open our mouths, we would fearlessly proclaim the gospel. That means that that is what we need to do right now, wherever we are. We don't need a big sweeping plan of what we need to do in order to be effective for God, we need to be effective right here, right now. Our prayer should be that wherever we are, that when we open our mouths, we should be able to fearlessly proclaim the gospel. That was a very good reminder that I don't have to wait until I'm out of the country to represent God, I need ot be doing that right now. Those were a couple of the main points I got out of the conference.
Other highlights were the fact that we raised 3.1 million dollars to help end modern day slavery, which is currently bigger than slavery ever has been in the past. The goal was to raise one million which was going to go to 6 organizations dealing with sex trafficking and human trafficking in Atlanta and around the world. We managed to raise 3.1 million though. Listening to all the things that the money was going to fund was really powerful and made it really feel like we had made a difference. Anyway, that was my week. I have one more week before I start working so prayer there would be appreciated. I will talk to you all next week.
Adios.
So this last week I was in Atlanta for the Passion conference. We heard messages from Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, Christine Cain, Francis Chan, and John Piper. Our worship was led by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, Kristian Stanfill, Charlie Hall, David Crowder, Hillsong United, and Lecrae. Needless to say it was very good! Worshipping with 43,000 other believers is incredibly powerful! One of the most powerful moments of worship though was when we sang How Great is Our God in several different languages at once. Singers were present from Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Uganda, and Indonesia. It was really cool! Two of the speakers stood out to me more than the others. Francis Chan impressed me with his genuine love for the word of God and the way he just reads the bible and does what it says without trying to read his own agenda into it. John Piper's sermon might have been really good, but I'm not smart enough to take it all in on one try.
Louie Giglio's sermon during the last session we had impressed me very much though. He spoke about what the will of God is for our lives. He taught from Ephesians 6:19. the will of God is that whenever we open our mouths, we would fearlessly proclaim the gospel. That means that that is what we need to do right now, wherever we are. We don't need a big sweeping plan of what we need to do in order to be effective for God, we need to be effective right here, right now. Our prayer should be that wherever we are, that when we open our mouths, we should be able to fearlessly proclaim the gospel. That was a very good reminder that I don't have to wait until I'm out of the country to represent God, I need ot be doing that right now. Those were a couple of the main points I got out of the conference.
Other highlights were the fact that we raised 3.1 million dollars to help end modern day slavery, which is currently bigger than slavery ever has been in the past. The goal was to raise one million which was going to go to 6 organizations dealing with sex trafficking and human trafficking in Atlanta and around the world. We managed to raise 3.1 million though. Listening to all the things that the money was going to fund was really powerful and made it really feel like we had made a difference. Anyway, that was my week. I have one more week before I start working so prayer there would be appreciated. I will talk to you all next week.
Adios.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Love Song for a Savior
Hey hey what up! Sorry I'm a couple days late! I'm at the Passion conference right now and it is incredible! But I will cover that next week. Anyway, I had something on my heart last week that I wanted to share. It's nothing very long, just something to think about. We are relational beings. We are wired that way. The bible certainly indicates that it has been that way since creation. The fall is when we lost our perfect relationship with God and things went south very quickly. I'm currently reading Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller and it deals with this topic. While I haven't finished the book yet, I highly recommend it. Anyway, I was realizing that there are two halves of all of my relationships: my half, and the other persons half. I contribute but I expect them to contribute as well. If our relationship with God is really what we call it, that is a relationship, then there are two halves of that relationship as well. We seem to ignore our part of it though. We expect God to bless us, to give us His spirit, to fight our battles, but we don't expect to give Him our lives, to devote our every breath to Him. We expect to be able to sing some prewritten songs once a week to Him and then let Him love on us extravagantly. This would be like a wife telling her husband she loves him once a week but expecting him to dote on her and meet her every need constantly. That is not a healthy relationship at all! Our relationship with God needs to be two way! If we expect constant love from him we need to plan on constantly loving Him back. Anyway just something to think about.
In other news, I hung around St. Louis this week. London came in town the day after Christmas and we have just been hanging out, going to parties and meeting people, hanging out, getting sick, and preparing for the Passion Conference. So that is my life in a nutshell. I can't wait to discuss this conference next week though. It has been very cool! So until next week, adios!
In other news, I hung around St. Louis this week. London came in town the day after Christmas and we have just been hanging out, going to parties and meeting people, hanging out, getting sick, and preparing for the Passion Conference. So that is my life in a nutshell. I can't wait to discuss this conference next week though. It has been very cool! So until next week, adios!
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