Good Day for a January 2nd!

Hey there.  I am a little tired but mostly in a really good mood.  Have today off from work and made it to the 9:00 class at #GeauxCrossfit.  If I didn't have to be at work so early, and I went to work out before work every morning, I would be in a much better frame of mind than I usually am when I start my workday.  Haha.

My attitude... one of the things I am praying for God to help me improve... and so, today, I will continue reading the Bible in hopes of making progress in that direction.  😊

Today we begin Genesis chapter 3.

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So, if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten the forbidden fruit, would we all be walking around today naked and unconcerned?  Kidding... but I believe God knew they would eat it.  God knows everything ahead of time because God is the One who wrote the original script.  I don't believe there's anything God doesn't know.  I don't believe God is ever surprised or caught off guard.

v. 12- the initial kickoff of the chronic "Blame Game"...

The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

v. 16 - the first seed of marital strife is planted...

And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you

v, 17 - the institution of miserable workdays...

the ground is cursed because of you.  All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

v. 20 - Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live

The baby name websites list "Eve" as meaning "life."  Beautiful name.

v. 23 - the first eviction...

So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.

Gen. 4:7 - You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master

Jesus made this very simple for us... love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

BAM.

Oh God, we need You so much.  Thank you for Your grace, strength, mercy and forgiveness.

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That's it for today.  I'm at a coffee shop chillin for my first paid day off of the year.  The weather's looking nasty... better get going!

Stay blessed and CHOOSE ONLY LOVE!  💜💞🙏

My New Year

Happy New Year!  Years ago I quit worrying about resolutions and started making goals.  I do better with general goals than with all-out ultimatums.  As time has passed, I have also learned that I fair better staying away from modifiers like "always" and "every."  Those tend to be overwhelming for me which has usually led to discouragement, guilt, and quitting.

So.  I do what works for me.  You, too, should do what works for you; not what works for someone else.  God made us all unique, yes?

Yes.

So, this year, my goal is to read the Bible more.  Not to "read the entire Bible in a year" or "get up extra early every morning and read the Bible" or even to "read the Bible every day"... just... "more."

Because I have not been in the Bible much at all, lately.  Here and there, yes, but I do need it more.

There are changes I would love for God to work in me.  I believe getting the Word in me will help those processes a LOT.

So.  I am going to try to read the Bible more.  Starting in Genesis and moving forward.

I would also like to make notes along the way, for things that stand out to me.

I would also like to, sometimes, share those notes in my blog.  Hopefully you will find them encouraging, or at least interesting.  *grin*

So, I have started today!

And, here we go.  Here is some of what has passed through my mind while I read the Bible today.

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January 1, 2017

Genesis 1:1-

I question this now that I’m older.  I know and believe God created everything.  But creating the sky to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens?  Back, way back, they thought the earth was all there was.  Now we know about the solar system and orbits and stars… and, in our atmosphere, we know about clouds and rain and storms… Now we know that clouds form and hold water that eventually falls back to earth, and there are no “waters of heaven” outside our atmosphere; just space and darkness.  It’s dry out there.

V. 11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened.

True and consistent in animals and people, too.  Like produces like.  And, in humans, children grow up to be like whoever raised and taught them.  Maybe not JUST like; there are exceptions.  I just mean as far as habits, tendencies and personality.  

HOWEVER… verse 12 says that “God saw that is was good.”  So it’s good, that we grow up the way we were raised.  God has purpose even in the tiniest of details.  It is good, and God sees that.  I think it pleases God.

On the 5th day, God created fish and birds.  On the 6th day, God created mammals.  I wonder why it was in that order.  Maybe it was progressing toward or building up to creation of humans.

V. 26 is the first mention of God as more than one; it says, “Let US make human beings[fn] in our image, to be like us.”

V. 26 goes on to say, “They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God rules over us and we rule over the earth.  God is into training leaders.

V. 28 - Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

V. 30 is the first time God speaks to what God has created.  Before that, God just spoke out creation; now there is the foundation for a relationship with God.  

Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.  And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.”

Genesis 2 - God did not rest until all God’s work was done.  I need to put this into practice, myself.

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed.  On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.

V. 3 God thinks rest is VERY IMPORTANT.  I’m liking this.  LOL

And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation

So, God likes us to complete all our work, then God really wants us to get plenty of good rest and relaxation.  I am REALLY liking this.  :)

Here is the Garden of Eden:

Which, today, might look similar to this:

So, maybe around present-day Israel or Lebanon or Syria.  But no one knows for sure; what we have are educated guesses by educated people.  But they all reach a general consensus of the area.  Cool.

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And there you have it! More to come. Have a fantastic year of growth and love!

Undivided

Well, here I am up to my ears in Hebrew, trying to get what God originally MEANT out of the words people have molded His word into, shaping the original Hebrew into our own first languages so we can read and understand for ourselves.

Undivided.

Anyone remember a Twila Paris song from the early 90's? Used to be one of my favorites. She sang from her heart, on top of a cool pop sound from those days, "Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name!" Here it is on YouTube: http://youtu.be/wqfYRqBgGP0

This past week, I was reading Ezekiel in the One Year Bible and came to this verse: (11:19) "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them. I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh."

The verse Twila sang from was Psalm 86:11 - "Teach me Your way, Lord, that I may rely on Your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name."

Using Strong's concordance online and a host of other websites and resources, I proceeded to piece both of these verses apart word by word, finding and defining the original Hebrew words for each English phrase. And I learned a LOT. I really did; I could write messages and blog entries for weeks going in a plethora of directions. (God's word is so rich with meaning!)

But. Through great effort, I am centering my focus for this blog entry on the two Hebrew words translated into "undivided" in the New International Version of the Bible.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew; the New Testament was written in Greek. And, today, I would like to introduce you to Echad and Yachid.

The word "echad" was used in Ezekiel when God said He would give His people an UNDIVIDED heart. When the Psalmist prayed for an UNDIVIDED heart, he used the word "yachid." Different, but the same; the same, but different.

"Echad" in Ezekiel indicated God would give His people a heart undivided; not separated or broken into parts. The hearts of many joined into one united force. Singular and all together. Deuteronomy 6:4 uses "echad" when it says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE."

"Yachid" is more numeric; it means ONE, like counting. It means "unique" and "solitary." Genesis uses "yachid" in referencing Abraham's only son Isaac.

So how does all that apply to us today? Both scripture passages are true. Though they have nuances of differentiation, they can work hand in hand.

God wants His people to have ONE heart, to stand undivided as God's face to the world. We, as God's children, live these days in a fractured, divided family. God's desire is for us to be united as one; as HE is one. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE."

I believe God wants us to forget about the issues we disagree on and unite over where we DO agree. God is LOVE. God is accepting and forgiving. God wants to heal individuals and heal nations. God is a great big, huge, loving God and nothing is impossible with Him!

Let's look away from the hairline fractures that can so greatly divide us... and focus on the huge, solid, sturdy masses of truth that unite us.

Secondly, God wants to put in each of us an UNDIVIDED heart so we will honor Him with our whole lives; our whole selves.

(HEART, by the way, has the same root meaning in both verses. It means "inner person, mind, and will.")

I want to be solid inside myself. Don't you? An undivided heart, to me, connotes peace, stability and tranquility.

So.

When God's children, each strong inside with an undivided heart...

come together as one group, with a united, undivided, collective heart...

that is something powerful!!

 

Look out, World. Love in FORCE is here and you are going to change. Things like hurt and hatred are tiny and weak in the face of God's great, huge, all-encompassing, undivided, loving heart.

And that is my prayer for us today.

WOW!!!😄 

Good things are on the way. Amen.

Learning This Evening

Hebrews 5 says Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered. Suffering, alone, is not good, but God can bring beneficial results from suffering.

God put in my heart that I have gained wisdom through things I have suffered. 

We do not gain wisdom WHILE we are suffering; when things are going on, it's the best we can do to process what we are experiencing and push forward as best as we can.

Wisdom comes later, when there is time and space between us and the suffering. We remember. And, as we remember, we can learn. God has a lot to teach us from our experiences if we ask and listen.

Like they say, hindsight is 20/20 😊

Hebrews 5 also talks about being able to consume God's word as milk or as solid food. Milk is the easy stuff; learning God loves you, learning He will never leave you, learning He will provide everything you need.

Solid food involves taking it up a notch. Moving from the 100 to the 200 level classes. Learning discipline; learning to distinguish good from evil. Building and continually strengthening your relationship with God. Asking God to refine you, and surrendering your whole life to His scrutiny so He can tell you what pleases Him and what needs to be changed or needs to go. Solid food is challenging- sometimes not comfortable- and requires a higher level of commitment.

God loves you the same whether you like your milk or desire solid food.

But solid food makes a person stronger than simply sipping milk.

Hebrews 5:14- "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

I am chewing on this verse and seeking further clarity on the matter of HOW we distinguish what is good and what is evil.ii

More to come! Time to get ready for bed and an early morning. But it will be a FRIDAY morning! So I think I will manage just fine. 😜😄😎i

Because You Trust Me

This morning, and for the past couple of days, I have been reading about the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was given the task of prophesying to the people of Jerusalem that their city would be handed over to the Babylonians and completely destroyed.

Over a period of time Jeremiah suffered a lot for speaking the word of God. He was falsely accused of being a traitor to the Babylonians and, subsequently, thrown into a vaulted cell in a dungeon. He stayed there for a long time, til King Zedekiah had him taken out. The king allowed Jeremiah to stay in a courtyard and be given bread as long as there was bread in the city.

Soon after that, three men heard what Jeremiah was saying about the soon-to-come destiny of Jerusalem and got really mad. So they went to King Zedekiah and complained, and were given permission to do with Jeremiah whatever they wanted. So they dropped him down into a well that had no water where he sunk into the mud at the bottom and was left to die.

A man named Ebed-Melech learned what had been done to Jeremiah and actually went to the King Zedekiah and spoke up for the prophet. The king told him to go ahead, take some rope and 30 men and for heaven's sake go get Jeremiah out of that well before he starved to death.

So, once again, Jeremiah was rescued.

When the time came for God's word to be fulfilled, city of Jerusalem was truly captured by the Babylonians and burned to the ground. Jeremiah was taken away along with all the other citizens of Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, however, had heard of Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar told his people to take Jeremiah out of the general population of Jews that had been captured and to let no harm come to him. So, once again, Jeremiah was rescued, allowed to stay in a courtyard, and was given provisions.

While Jeremiah was in that courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him for Ebed-Melech, the man who had spoken up for Jeremiah and had him rescued from the well.

The end of Jeremiah chapter 39 reads: "While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the Guard, the word of the Lord came to him: "Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Cushite, 'This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity. They will be fulfilled before your eyes. I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.'"

The first thought that came to my mind when I read this was that God did not tell Ebed-Melech what to do, where to go, or by what means he was going to be rescued. God simply said, "I will rescue you because I know you trust Me." So, to be rescued, Ebed-Melech just had to keep doing what he was doing.

Now, if this had been me God was speaking to, I would have started stressing about what I needed to do or where I needed to be or what I needed to make sure to not do, etcetera, etcetera, for God to rescue me and save my life. But the POINT of all this is just that; trusting God.

There's nothing we can do to make a rescue happen or to make salvation happen. God says it, it's going to happen; we just have to trust.

Trust can be scary. Faith in the unseen can feel frightening simply because what we are trusting is something we cannot see. The New Testament says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. That almost sounds redundant, doesn't it? But it's the truth. That's a good reason to read the Bible a lot and get it down in our hearts. The Bible shows us God's track record.

Over and over, consistently, God has kept every single one of His promises. If we need further encouragement or assurance, we can simply talk to other Christians who can give us further examples of when God has kept promises to them. God keeps His promises.

God keeps His promises.

God speaks to us today the same promise He said to Ebed-Melech hundreds of years ago: I will rescue you because you trust in me.

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES.

God will rescue us from anything life throws at us. Because we trust Him. Please be encouraged today and know that God's love for you is huge and enormous and unsurpassed. He will. He will. He will continue to be the faithful God he has been since the beginning of time; He will continue to keep His word, to you, to me, to everyone.

God's faithfulness has nothing to do with our actions but everything to do with WHO GOD IS. Go today and know that God  is with you always, every moment. God will never let you down, and he will never let you go.

Amen.